


She Hit Me Like a Tidal Wave

by gingawr



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, Other
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-21
Updated: 2015-06-04
Packaged: 2018-03-25 03:39:07
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 28,835
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3795289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gingawr/pseuds/gingawr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Modern AU where Korra is a semi-pro surfer who has recently moved to Republic City to compete, be trained by Bolin, and to work at Tenzin's surf shop.  Asami works at Future Industries under her father; a greedy, classist businessman.  Asami is trying to push the company more towards a philanthropic drive rather than be strictly based on profit. Bolin works as a lifeguard and Korra's trainer throughout summer, but is Asami's assistant the rest of the year. </p><p>All this and much more to come.</p><p>Feel free to follow my Tumblr for updates on this fic and LoK/AtLA related posts: http://shehitmelikeatidalwave.tumblr.com/</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Nails tapped along the shiny mahogany desk in slight frustration. The ivory hand belonged to a slender woman in a maroon-colored blazer and matching skirt. She was sitting behind the desk with a small grin upon her face while she listened to her employee, Bolin, try to convince her to come down to the beach front.

“You don’t understand how swamped I am at work though, Bolin!” The woman spread her arms out at the piles of paperwork laying upon her desk, raising her eyebrows as if to say “See?”

“Asamiii, pleeease!” Bolin gave her a deep pout and threw in a quivering bottom lip for good measure. “You and I both know damn well you have five other hopeless schmucks you could shrug your duties off onto for the day.”

“You would know, of course, being one of those hopeless schmucks!” Asami gave a chuckle.

“Correct! I’m all yours nine months of the year. Now, I’m begging you for the thirty-second time in the past five years: please come to the beach front today. I promise you will love getting a little Vitamin D on that nearly transparent complexion of yours.” He winked and she scowled. “And you’ll get to see my girl compete in the Semi-Finals!” Bolin gave his cunning smile that always wins you over.

Asami gave a sigh, rolled her eyes, and as soon as she said, “I’ll see if Kai can manage some extra paperwork,” Bolin nearly leapt happily in the air. “Don’t hold your breath, bud.”

“I won’t. But,” he said on his way out of the office, “see ya there, ‘Sami!”

Asami shook her head and smiled. She went back to sipping her tea and getting caught up on her emails. After spending a couple hours clarifying that the place wouldn’t burn down if she took the rest of the day off , she drove off for the beach front in her Satomobile.

OO

The pavement rushed fast beneath her, becoming a blur. Korra swayed back and forth, weaving in and out of traffic on her longboard. I’m so late! she thought to herself as she took a long curve off the main strip and into an alley. She righted herself then began kicking off the pavement to pick up speed again. 

It wasn’t long until she came upon the beachfront or the small-ish surf shop she works at. After coming to a stop, she kicked her board up into her hands, and then ran around the building to her little workshop in the backyard. The workshop is more or less an old shack with chipping white paint, covered mostly in vines. Once unlocked, Korra threw down her longboard on a raggedy love seat, picked up her surfboard from its rack and took off for the beach.

A loud yet soothing voice blared from the speakers informing the crowd, “Fifteen minutes! Fifteen minutes until we begin!” Korra could tell that Tenzin was the announcer; she could recognize her boss’s voice anywhere. He always seems agitated with just about everything, and yet, he always responds peacefully. Well, mostly peacefully. She looked around but couldn’t find where Bolin may be, so she just placed her board on the sand beside her and bent down to untie her shoes. While she slid off her hi-tops someone came into her peripheral and she looked over. 

Korra made a funny face at the woman who just walked up, mostly because it was very apparent that she was not prepared to be here. This stranger was in a business suit and pantyhose, standing in the sand on a rather warm day, carrying her high heels in one free hand while the other batted air towards her face. Korra stifled a chuckle and stood up, saying, “So, I don’t want to seem rude but...are you lost?” 

Asami stopped looking around and turned her head towards Korra and said, “Pardon me?” Her eyebrows turned up in confusion but there was a little tug at the corner of her mouth when she noticed the girl beside her. She was slightly taken aback by the raspy voice, big shining cyan eyes, and a slanting contagious smile. 

Korra rubbed the back of her neck and looked at the ground, away from those piercing emerald eyes. Asami noticed some kind of tribal tattoo wrapped around the bicep of the stranger and was intrigued. Korra said, “I just, uh...I didn’t really figure you were here for a surfing competition.” 

Before Asami got offended she remembered her attire and looked down at herself with a nod and smiled. “Believe it or not, I am here for the competition. My friend just talked me into ditching work for the rest of the day and for some reason I didn’t think to change into something more…” She trailed off, losing track of what she was saying, because Korra had continued getting ready for the competition, which involved her pulling that grey racerback tank off. 

Korra’s torso was exquisitely toned, and showed how much care and hard work she put into her body everyday. Asami gazed at the muscular indentions below her ribs and followed them down to the deeper lines beginning at her pelvis and--she gulped, bit her bottom lip, looked away and tried her absolute best to keep composure, but Korra noticed. She started tying her chestnut brown hair up with a grin. The blare of a horn sounded, indicating all of the competitors had ten minutes remaining before the competition starts.

Korra brought her fingers to her mouth and let out a whistle. A second or two later a rather large, fluffy white blur came barreling across the beach narrowly knocking over onlookers. Once the blurry excitable creature came to them and stopped at Korra’s feet, Asami recognized it as nothing more than a giant dog. “Hey Naga,” Korra said to the majestic beast as she rubbed behind its ears. “Can you do me a favor?” Naga stomped around, wagging her tail uncontrollably and barked happily. Korra continued, “Can you watch my things?” Naga barked and Korra laughed, “Don’t worry, there definitely will be treats in it for you.”

“She seems like a sweetheart,” Asami said, petting down the back of Naga’s neck. Naga licked the backside of Asami’s hand and she made a face as she wiped it on her skirt.

“Oh don’t let her fool ya. Be careful if you’re ever trying to eat and she’s within a mile radius.” Korra chuckled warmly, which made Asami smile. “Well, I really need to get down there. I hope you enjoy watching the competition and aren’t too uncomfortable.” 

“Thank you, and good luck!” 

“Thanks,” Korra picked up her board and took off down to the shore with a skip in her step. 

When she reached the wet sand Bolin came running over to her, “Excuse me, but where have you been young lady?” 

Korra laughed, “Just up the beach chatting with someone, Bolin. And besides, aren’t I older than you?”

“Oh, who cares. Here’s your number by the way,” he handed an armband to her and put his hands on his hips while she slipped it on. “Now, I’m familiar with some of these other girls. You don’t have too much to worry about, mostly amateurs, but there is one in particular...” Bolin pointed about twenty yards down the beach to a couple. The woman was tall, broad-shouldered, and had a long thick braid of black hair down her back. Her trainer was massaging her shoulders and arms and whispering in her ear.

Korra made a look of disgust, “How come you don’t massage my shoulders?”

Bolin rolled his eyes, “Okay, so that’s Kuvira and her fiance Baatar. She is one of the top ranked semi-pro surfers, and even has a few sponsors and scouts lined up already.”

Korra let out a low whistle, “Superb. So...do good, right?” She gave Bolin an encouraging smile.

“Yes. Do good.” Bolin gave her a big smile and an even bigger hug. 

The final blast blared and Tenzin’s voice boomed across the shore. “Welcome everyone to Republic City’s 7th Annual Semi-Pro Competition! Today we have several talented individuals who will be pairing off against one another in order to see who qualifies for the Finals; and let me tell you ladies and gentleman, we couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day. Just look at those waves! And without further rambles let’s get this show rolling!”

Another blast from Tenzin’s horn and Korra was going to throw it into the ocean!

OO

Most of the afternoon was made up of two girls going head to head and seeing which one made it out on top. For Korra it was like any other day out on those waves; when she is out on the water, on her board, she feels completely at peace. When a wave comes her way it’s like seeing an old friend, welcoming her into its embrace. When she catches it, dropping in, she becomes one with the current and the force the wave brings to her. Korra and surfing go together so naturally it’s easy to believe she has been doing this since she was a child. When she rides a wave it’s less like surfing and more like an intimate dance. The way her body moves with the motion of the wave causes you to think it takes more than just “great balance”; there’s a natural bewitching style she possesses. 

Asami was completely transfixed by this woman’s athleticism and talent; she couldn’t tear her eyes away. Korra waded back to shore and was embraced by Bolin, singing her praises to everyone in earshot. The judges came back with nearly perfect scores, qualifying Korra for the Finals. Bolin picked the small surfer up off the ground and swung her around, whooping and hollering.

“We’re going out and celebrating tonight!” Bolin exclaimed to Korra, who just laughed him off.

“Okay, I’m just going to grab my things before Kuvira starts her match; I really want to see what she can do.” Korra took off and picked up her shoes and tank, then walked back with Naga trotting beside her. To her surprise, Bolin was chatting with the woman she had met from before. She had taken her maroon blazer off and had it wrapped over one arm, exposing her pale toned arms and short-sleeved white button up.

Bolin turned to Korra and said, “Here she is! Our lovely champion, Korra.” He spread his arms out and gestured towards her as if to a display of his prized trophies. 

Korra grinned and said, “I’m not champion yet, Bolin!”

They both chuckled before Bolin motioned to introduce his mutual friends to one another. “Asami, may I introduce you to our soon-to-be champion, Korra. Korra, this is my old friend Asami Sato.” As the women went to shake hands Korra’s stomach plummeted. 

“Sato?” She asked, “As in-”

Asami smiled at the all too common second take, “Yes, as in The Sato’s. The ones of Future Industries and Satomobile fame. Yep!”

Korra wished this weren’t true, and that it was just coincidence that this beautiful girl happened to share the last name of the same head runners of the biggest and most successful corporation in the world. The same corporation that plans to privatize this very beach and kick out the majority of the downtown residents because they aren’t “upper class”. Korra did her best at keeping her true emotions and thoughts behind a mask of kindness while shaking Asami’s hand. “Well, it’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Sato.”

A blare let out signaling the beginning to Kuvira’s match and the group made their way to a better spot to watch. After a few minutes a wave came their way and the other girl started paddling. It started off fine and normal until Kuvira took possession over the wave, cutting the other girl off entirely and causing her to collapse into the wave. Korra shot up and exclaimed, “Hey! That’s an illegal move!” She began looking around to see if anyone else noticed the all-too-obvious misconduct; Bolin was up beside her in agreement.

Korra glanced over at the judges and saw they had no reaction to the apparent wrongness in Kuvira’s actions, and it only infuriated her further. She began to stomp over to them in order to teach them about unsportsmanlike conduct, but Bolin grabbed her arm, “As much as I agree with you that this is messed up and Kuvira should be disqualified, it’s obvious someone has asked the judges to look the other way.”

Korra bunched her eyebrows, looking back at the judges and then to Bolin, “What? What do you mean?” 

“Let’s just say that money can get you pretty far in this city,” Bolin frowned.

Korra narrowed her eyes in anger and disappointment, then looked to Asami just over Bolin’s shoulder. Money and profit, that’s what it always comes back to.

OO

“If you just keep messing with your food it’ll get cold, Korra,” said Mako, Bolin’s brother. He was off duty from his job as a police officer, and as usual he was being his brooding self. 

Korra had been pushing her meal around for the majority of the time they had been at the restaurant, too busy steaming with anger at Kuvira’s match. Her opponent qualified for Finals, which meant she would have to face off against her at some point. It all felt pointless after what she witnessed today; the judges just ignored the outright cheat and instead of being disqualified she was rewarded the opposite. They may as well have crowned her champion of the entire competition! Korra shoved her plate away from herself, no longer toying with her meal due to loss of appetite.

Bolin patted his little surfer on the back, understanding her frustration. He wished he could do something, but he couldn’t figure out how to fix it. They’ll just train harder, and try to find something juicy on Kuvira. Hey, they had a month to get everything together, totally do-able. “So how’s work been, bro?”

Mako looked up, wiped his mouth and said, “Well, there has been a recent disappearance of homeless persons lately, with no evidence of murder, foul play, or like they have suddenly been handed a better life. I’ve been trying to convince Chief Beifong to let me lead a case, but she tells me I don’t have one, that this happens all the time. But you and I know that isn’t entirely true.” Bolin nodded with understanding, remembering their childhood spent on the streets all too well. “So I’m going to keep pressing Chief, hopefully she’ll come around to it before it gets worse.”

“Good on you, Mako. I’m happy someone on the force is trying to take care of them,” said Asami as she took a bite out of her dumpling.

Korra chuckled, “Well, it’s not like the Sato’s are doing anything about it.”

The air grew still, and before either of the boys could come to Asami’s defense she held up her hand to them, “It’s okay, it wouldn’t be the first time someone is only partially correct about the Sato’s. Continue, Korra, it seems you know me pretty well.” There’s that unwavering smile Korra couldn’t quite figure out.

Korra sighed and continued, “It’s just that Future Industries hasn’t done much to benefit others without it depending on their own profit in the end. They don’t care about the people they plan to displace here in their own city. They don’t care how hard people work to make a living, or that they will end up on the streets regardless of some bullshit hand-out. It’s not right and anyone who can do anything about it turns the other cheek when enough cash has been stuffed into their pockets. And now you want to take the beach away from us “lowly folks” and turn it into some gated community for your yuppie chums.” When she ended she was breathing heavily and crossed her arms angrily.

Asami had stayed completely calm, with that damn smile still on her face. The boys had found the remaining food on their plates to require all of their attention. Finally, with a bat of her eyes, she said, “I agree with you.”

Korra’s eyebrows shot up in confusion and she unfolded her arms, “What?!”

“You’re right,” Asami stood, picking up her blazer, “At least about Future Industries.” She put down money for her meal and a tip. “It’s getting rather late boys, so I must get going. Thank you for a lovely day, and meal. And,” she looked over at Korra, meeting those big blue eyes, “it was even lovelier meeting you, Korra.” 

And with a grin, the tall long-haired beauty walked out of the restaurant and into the night, leaving Korra to slap her forehead with her palm, exclaiming, “I’m such an asshole.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Asami and Hiroshi come to blows over their differences, Bolin explains to Korra how he and Mako met Asami, and why she isn’t what Korra figured her to be. Mako tries to win over Chief Beifong in opening a case on the missing homeless persons.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Dos is here you guys. I hope you like it!

Loud aggressive clanging of metal rattled out from the Sato garage. Asami was in the process of changing the muffler on her motorcycle, but was having difficulty with keeping her frustrations from earlier that day at bay. Out of the four meetings she had had, one in particular left her livid. It had involved the discussion of cutting benefits for the next six months to the line workers at the Satomobile factory due to the discovery of two small errors yesterday.

Asami immediately opposed the suggestion, explaining that being factory workers they are more prone to injury, that they can’t legally work and not be provided with medical benefits. After debating for over an hour her father shut down the opposition, saying, “Mistakes are unacceptable at Future Industries. This cannot be overlooked nor go unpunished.” After a signature and a few handshakes he left the meeting without interacting with Asami any further.

She threw down her wrench in frustration and began to pace. She had wrapped the arms of her coveralls around her waist; the heat of summer having found its way into her personal sanctuary. She crossed the spacious room, her heavy boots knocking along the concrete floor, and switched on a fan; the new breeze cooled the perspiration against her skin and undershirt. Her slender yet strong hands reached up to pull her long, luscious dark hair back and above her shoulders. 

When she reached out to grasp a rag off of her workbench, in order to wipe grease from her forearm, a screwdriver was knocked off and rolled under the table. Bending down she reached under, groping for the fickle tool, but instead found something else. Once she latched onto the object she pulled it out and noticed it was an old prototype that was supposed to be used as a more efficient form of preventing engines from overheating, specifically when it came to racing. She had built it a few years ago, but it never worked properly and she hasn’t gotten the chance to improve it; not since she started spending most of her time at work fighting against most of her father’s plans for Future Industries and Republic City.

Asami placed the unfinished device on the workbench and let out a sigh, then rubbed her temples from her growing frustration. When did her life get like this? When did every day become a struggle to make her father see reason? She used to look up to Hiroshi Sato, the genius and inventor. He was always brimming with new industrious ideas, he taught her how to build things from the ground up and figure out what makes them work in order to appreciate them more. Every moment with her father was a wonderful learning experience that she still cherishes today. And then, well...then things changed. But now, she doesn’t know who this man is, he is no longer full of love, consideration, or compassion. He has been replaced by a cold, selfish, money-hungry CEO who she hasn’t been able to call “father” in such a long time. 

 

OO

Korra and Bolin were racing towards the end of the pier, Korra in the lead even at the end of their five mile run. They had been training the majority of the day, “no rest for the wicked”, Bolin explained. Korra hit the end of the pier and yelled, “Winner! I am glorious, undefeated, and always amazing!” She started moving around, jabbing the air and swaying.

Between gasps of air Bolin asked, “What are you doing?” He had a stitch in his side and thought he might throw up.

“This is what’s called a victory dance, Bolin.” She shimmied her shoulders and thrust her hips, “I know you haven’t experienced it yourself, but maybe, just maybe, you will someday.”

Bolin laughed and coughed, “That’s...that’s what you call dancing?” He laughed harder, causing the stitch to worsen. Korra stopped moving about and pouted at Bolin, then punched him in the arm. “Hey, I’m just kidding...maybe.” She hit him again, “Ow! Okay, I’m sorry.” He rubbed the spot she hit, a bump was already forming. 

“Alright, celebratory ice cream?” Korra had the biggest smile on her face and wiggled her eyebrows up and down.

Bolin grinned and shook his head, “Nothing stops you, huh?”

“Nope!” she said, and they began walking over to the cafe on the pier. “Besides, I’ve burned like a million and one calories today. I deserve it!”

After getting their ice cream they sat out on a bench enjoying the gorgeous, warm and sunny day. About halfway through her cone Korra spoke, focusing on the waves out past the pier, “So, I feel like I need to apologize for last night.” She stitched her eyebrows together and looked down at the dock.

Bolin had already inhaled his ice cream, cone and all, and was wiping his mouth on the back of his hand. After letting out a belch he finally answered, “You mean about the whole ‘Hey, Asami, I know we just met and all but I think you’re a selfish bitch since you are the daughter of the CEO at Future Industries, therefore you yourself must be a terrible person as well’?” Korra frowned and felt even worse than she did before, but Bolin nudged her shoulder with his. “Hey, don’t beat yourself up over it. It’s not like you’re the first person to judge Asami incorrectly.”

“That doesn’t make it okay, though,” Korra continued to pout and eat her ice cream.

“No, you’re right. You were pretty rude to her, but she has a great head on her shoulders. Mako and I have known her for a long time, and since she’s also my boss I’ve seen her in a lot of tough spots. What Asami meant, about you only being half right about the Sato’s, is that her dad is the frontrunner of the plan to privatize the beach and take over downtown. Asami has been on the opposing team and is the main reason it hasn’t come into fruition, because she goes head to head with him and his cronies. I’ve been helping her with counter plans, looking for every crack in the documentation, and she has found every one. 

“Asami is an extremely intelligent and caring woman who wants to take care of this city and its residents. She wants to see this city grow and look past its differences in class. She does what she can and the last thing she wants is for Future Industries to take the beach and downtown away from us ‘lowly folks’.” Bolin gave her another nudge and she grinned at him for using her own words from the night before. 

“I still feel pretty crappy for everything I said, though, especially now that I know Asami’s true intentions are so...ugh. She’s a damn saint, and I basically told her she’s a rich ass-hat.” Korra wanted to claw her own eyes out for the upteenth time but she just angrily shoved the rest of her cone into her mouth, giving herself a brain freeze.

Bolin chuckled at her suffering, “Well, I’m sure you’ll get the chance to apologize sometime in the future. Seriously though, Korra, don’t beat yourself up over it. Asami is pretty forgiving, and one of my best buds.” He hopped up off the bench and offered her a hand, “Shall we return to Tenzin’s?”

She grabbed his hand and was yanked out of her seat, “Yeah, probably should. He’ll tell me I’ve been neglecting my responsibilities as his apprentice...again.” She gave a shrug and they took off towards the shop.

OO

It was five ‘til five, almost time for his meeting with Chief Beifong, and he was running through his statement one last time. Mako couldn’t believe how nervous he was, but then again, it’s Beifong, she always caused him to second guess everything he said or did, but only to better himself in the end. Most of the other officers always talk about how much of a hardass the Chief is, and while Mako agrees he also understands that she puts commitment to work before anything and everything. This job is the world to her, and Mako is completely on the same page, because this job is everything to him. 

Ever since she found him and Bolin on the streets, and took them in under her own roof, she taught them what it takes to be responsible for your own actions and their outcomes. She was their guardian and therefore took care of them, but she taught them valuable lessons in her own special stubborn way. He appreciates the woman for everything she stands for; she is strong, independent, and passionate about law and duty, so naturally he was drawn towards a career in law enforcement.

There was a knock against the doorframe next to Mako, rousing him from his thoughts, and he looked up to see the secretary to Chief Beifong, “Hey Mako, the Chief will see you now.” Mako stood up, straightened the top to his uniform and entered the office. The chair that the Chief was sitting in wasn’t facing him, but instead was affixed towards the view out the window onto downtown. High-rise skyscrapers shadowed most of the city, along with the massive freight blimps that slowly moved high above them. 

Mako slowly closed the door behind him and walked towards the large metal desk and stood at attention. After about a minute of silence Mako gave a slight cough to suggest his presence. The big chair slowly turned around, revealing Lin Beifong, her perfectly bobbed grey hair and the two scars that lay across her right cheek. “Officer Mako, to what do I owe the pleasure of having you here today?” She cocked an eyebrow, but beyond that her expression was stoic. 

Mako cleared his throat once again, “Chief, I come to you in regards of the recent disappearances of the homeless individuals in our city. I believe this isn’t a fluke, or coincidence. I believe that there is someone behind these vanishings.”

“Oh?” The Chief kicked her feet up on her desk with a clang, then steepled her fingers, “Do you possibly have any evidence? Or possibly a lead?”

Mako’s eye contact faltered for a second, “No, sir. But I-”

“For fuck’s sake, Mako, why am I even meeting with you?” She wasn’t angry, but was what Mako deemed almost worse: she was frustrated with him.

“Chief, please, hear me out.” He gave her a pleading look and her stone face softened slightly.

“Very well, make it quick, I have a damn meeting with President Raiko uptown in half an hour,” she folded her arms across her chest and furrowed a brow.

Mako was hopeful, “Yes, sir. Okay, so, as you know I have a lot of first-hand experience with what it’s like living on the streets. My brother and I are very familiar with the homeless community and their lifestyle.” Beifong nodded with understanding and motioned for him to go on. “I don’t believe this is just some strange situation due to drugs or something else, sir. These aren’t random disappearances, there have been far too many reports of people just vanishing during the night, leaving what belongings they have behind. Sir,” Mako’s composure fell for a second time, “sir, they wouldn’t just leave their belongings behind, especially those that have family-it’s all they’ve got left. They’re people, regardless of having a roof over their head or not, they are still people who need to be taken care of.”

The Chief knit her brows and stood up, walked behind her chair and gazed out across the city. “So, what are you suggesting, Officer Mako?” 

He was taken aback; he figured he would have to fight harder to bring attention to this problem he wanted to fix, but it seemed like the Chief was being compassionate. “Um, well sir, I was hoping to be able to open a proper investigation on this in order to find the missing persons. In hand, I would further find who may be behind all of this.” 

Mako watched her shoulders rise and fall from a heavy sigh, “I will speak with President Raiko this evening and will let you know where he stands on the situation.”  
She turned back around, the steel grey bob only swaying slightly. After a few seconds of Mako’s disbelief and silence, the Chief said, “Dismissed, Officer.” He straightened back into attention, bowed, and left her office, closing the door behind himself. As he sat down at his desk he was absolutely beaming with hope, nothing could bring him down. Nothing that is besides the body that just washed up on shore...

OO

There was a cough just over Asami’s shoulder, causing her to stop screwing in a bolt and to instead look around and see her father standing in the doorway. She turned her attention back to twisting in the bolt with a grumble, “Mr. Sato, what brings you to this lovely establishment this fine evening? We don’t have another ‘splendid’ meeting until next Thursday.” It was difficult for her not to be catty; she was over the pleasantries she always presented during those meetings and ended up receiving nothing in return. Hiroshi walked across the room quietly, without a single scuff along the floor. He ran a finger along the workbench and rubbed the dust between his fingers, scowling. 

“Can I help you with something?” Asami asked skeptically. Her father hasn’t interacted with her outside of work in months, maybe even a year, so him being here in the garage of all places kind of creeped her out.

Hiroshi Sato stood tall and proud, but was very round about the waist and always had been as long as Asami could remember. His hair was perfectly slicked back, causing the silver at his temples to be exposed, and there were heavy bags under his eyes making him look utterly exhausted. Finally, he spoke in a gruff voice, “I have been meaning to speak to you for some time now, Asami.”

Asami stood up slowly and folded her greasy arms across her chest, providing her father with a deep scowl, “Don’t you mean, ‘Ms. Sato’?”

His face turned a deep shade of red from anger, nearly boiling over before he exhaled, “No daughter of mine will speak to me in such a way!”

Asami wasn’t up for holding back her true feelings, “How dare you claim me as your daughter when you’ve shown more affection towards your staff!” There was malice in every word she spoke, letting the hurt he’s put her through these past few years sting through each one. She strode over to him, staring him down, and he couldn’t bring himself to look her in the eye. “Who are you? Where have you gone? If she were here-”

“Don’t!” Hiroshi had quickly cut Asami off, finally meeting her emerald eyes. Tears welled up in his, causing them to look even more dark and tired, and for a second she wanted to comfort him, to apologize; but she remembered the events of the day, and all of his rash and selfish decisions over time.

She picked up her jacket, goggles and helmet from the workbench and while putting them on, said, “You should think about that a little more, like how she would despise you more than I do right now.” She hopped onto the bike and rode off in need of some time away from work and her home life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it! Leave some love whether in the form of kudos or comments!
> 
> Chapter 3 isn't too far off in the horizon, so keep your eyes peeled (or subscribe, yo)!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Asami shows up on Tenzin’s doorstep just in time for dinner, Mako gets a promotion he wasn’t expecting, and Korra finally gets to apologize for being a jerk.

When Korra and Bolin returned to the shop they were greeted by Tenzin’s children who had just gotten back from visiting their grandmother. The kids were very excitable and attacked Korra with affection, causing her to collapse under all of their hugs. They were asking a million questions about how her match had gone the day before and telling her this and that about the trip.

“It was amazing! We saw penguins!” Meelo shouted.

“And seals!” Ikki chimed in, and Rohan gurgled.

“Your mother and father say they love and miss you very much,” Jinora patted Korra’s shoulder and gave an encouraging smile, then in a lower town she continued, “and they said thank you...for everything.” Jinora gave Korra’s shoulder a squeeze.

Korra smiled and gave a nod, “Thank you, Jinora. And how is Katara?”

“As spunky as ever,” she grinned.

“Good, I miss her so much.”

Katara, Tenzin’s mother, was the Southern Water Tribe’s elder and had been the major driving force for Korra leaving the tribe and moving to Republic City. Korra used to help her father, the Chief of the Southern Water Tribe, in trade negotiations, but never found a passion for it; however, every time they vacationed up north she tried her hand at surfing and instantly fell in love. Her parents, Chief Tonraq and Senna, were unsure of their only child leaving the tribe to become Tenzin’s apprentice and to surf competitively on the side. Korra’s reasoning was for the benefit of the family, sending the majority of her winnings back home, while Katara wanted Korra to embrace the world and find her own independence; much like her own daughter Kya. 

Eventually, mom and dad came around to the idea, and Korra took off for this strange new life just a couple months back. Tenzin found her both a trainer and a place to stay; Bolin had been lifeguarding at the beach for years and was a friendly, familiar face to the family and always directed business their way. The surf shop is where the boards are made and surf lessons are taught by Tenzin (and now Korra), and is also where Tenzin’s family lives.

Everything worked out really well, Korra still missed home but was warming up to the city. It was so unlike the vast frigid place she hailed from. This surely was the furthest she had been from home, and it was taking some time to adjust. First of all Republic City was loud, in your face, and a bit dirty; kind of unwelcoming at first, but then it kind of grows on you. All of these thoughts and memories filled her head as she worked, carving out a new board. There was a knock on the door of Korra’s workshack, and Jinora came in to let her know that dinner was nearly done. 

She put down her carving saw and said, “I’ll be right there, just need to clean up a bit first.” After she left, Korra went over to the sink and wetted a rag, wiping some of the dirt and grime from the day away. She had changed into a pair of denim shorts and a black racerback after her workout with Bolin, feeling refreshed even though she now had some dust from the polyurethane foam here and there in her hair. When she entered the kitchen she helped Pema bring the meal to the table; Bolin had most of a bread roll in his mouth and was trying to tell a joke, causing the kids to have a giggle fit. 

Bolin gulped down the roll and shot up from his cushion, “Alrighty guys, I’ve gotta get going. Those lifeguards in training can’t train themselves!” He jutted out his broad chest and shoulders, playfully showing how proud of himself he was. Saddened boos and pouts came from the kids, and Bolin ruffled Meelo’s hair, “Aw c’mon, I’ll be guarding all day tomorrow! Goodnight everyone, and I’ll see you at home later?” He was talking to Korra, to which she nodded with a grin.

After Bolin had left and they were several minutes into their meal Korra heard an engine revving from up the road and become quiet outside the shop. Thinking it was Bolin coming back because he had forgotten something, Korra got up to go see. When she opened the door she was met by a familiar face, Asami Sato striding from her motorcycle with her helmet tucked under an arm and goggles dangling around her neck. Although her hair flowed perfectly down along her back, there was dirt, grime, and motor oil covering her clothes and smudging her face. 

Korra couldn’t help but ogle at this woman she had met just the day before in a tailored, steam-pressed business suit that made her look so uptight, but now… “Shit.”

Asami stood in front of Korra with a cocked eyebrow and said, “Excuse me?”

Korra snapped back to attention and blurted, “I meant-aw crap, I’m sorry,” she put her hand to her mouth out of embarrassment, afraid to say anything else. “It’s just that I wasn’t expecting you...here…” She shrugged to indicate their surroundings, then rubbed the back of her neck and looked away; a nervous tick of her’s.

Asami grinned, “And is this how you always greet others?” Before Korra could apologize again Asami chuckled and said, “I’m kidding, Korra. I did show up unannounced, but I came here to see Bolin; he tends to hang around here a lot.” She looked around the place, half expecting her friend to pop out of nowhere.

Korra said, “I’m sorry, he actually just left to train CPR to a bunch of his students.”

“Oh,” Asami’s face fell, causing Korra to notice something was bothering her, but she wasn’t going to pry. “Well, I guess I should get going.”

As Asami began to turn and leave Korra stepped forward and lightly placed a hand right above Asami’s elbow, “Wait, have you had dinner yet?” Korra raised her eyebrows and gave a comforting smile.

“Oh, I don’t want to impose,” she said with a kind smile, but in actuality she hadn’t had anything since...breakfast? Spirits, Asami, you need to stop doing this, she thought to herself.

Korra gently squeezed her arm, “Don’t worry about it, Pema always makes a little extra for me to take home anyways. C’mon inside,” there’s that crooked smile again, Asami thought, and she followed it into the warm inviting home.

OO

Mako was working late filing some paperwork when he heard the phone within Chief Beifong’s office ring. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” Mako heard the Chief exclaim, her voice bellowing through her office walls. After a few minutes he heard the phone slam and then the doors to the office opened and Beifong came out, looking flustered; before others took notice she straightened her uniform and collected herself. After looking around a bit she eyed Mako and made her move towards him, morphing back into her normal stoic state as she strode across the room. 

“Sir, what’s the matter?” Mako put down the pile of files he had in hand, wanting to help her with anything that might be going on. He placed his hands on his hips and furrowed his thick eyebrows together, ready to take on anything she was going to hit him with.

Chief Beifong let out a sigh, cracked the knuckles of one hand into the palm of the other, then said as blunt as always, “A body just washed up on south shore, and I’m about to head down to the beach to investigate and ward off the media.” 

Mako’s stomach plummeted, “Was it a murder or a drowning or-?”

“Not sure yet, but that’s why you’re coming with me.” Mako looked entirely confused, Chief’s words weren’t sinking in yet. “Don’t look at me like that, we both know you’re meant to be a detective.” Mako sighed and let out a groan to which Lin let a grin slip by. 

It was true, as much as he loved being a police officer, upholding the law and catching the bad guys, what he really wanted deep down was all of that and the nitty gritty bits of being a detective. He has always been detail-oriented and methodical; Lin saw that in him since he was much younger, and after their meeting today, and now this terrible situation, she felt he deserved the promotion. “Come on, you can go through all that paperwork when we get back, that body is only getting deader.” There was a dry chuckle and she stopped, “Sorry, that was bad.”

Mako frowned, “You think?”

OO

After the initial surprise of the younger Sato joining them for dinner, Tenzin and Pema gladly opened up an extra spot at their table and heaped her plate full of food. Asami felt completely at home discussing the betterment of Republic City and some of her team’s plans on making downtown safer for everyone; okay, maybe she didn’t feel “at home”, but this was exactly what she needed. Tenzin and Pema were so full of love, their kids were crazy but brilliant and really funny, and then...well then there was Korra.

When Asami arrived at the surf shop hoping to find Bolin to talk to, she wasn’t expected the hotheaded surfer from the day before. Sure, she was easy on the eyes, but Asami also wasn’t really in the mood to have another accusatory discussion; but here she was, drawn in by that endearing smile. After their stomachs were full and Asami and Korra helped Pema clear the table and cleanup (regardless of Pema’s protests), Korra suggested they go for a walk. 

The sun is just about down, a thin strip of red, orange and purple lay over the coast, and a blanket of stars were beginning to show themselves. A cool breeze came up off the waves and blew back Asami’s hair as they walked through the sand, and she got a shiver. “Are you cold? We could go back if you want,” Korra said, stopping and looking back towards Tenzin’s.

“I’m fine, thank you,” Asami continued on walking and smiled at Korra’s kindness, “So, I take it that you don’t hate me as much as you claimed to last night?”

Korra still stood there, left dumbfounded by Asami’s straightforward comment and feelt guilty. “Aw man, I’m really, truly sorry about everything I said. I just-”

“It’s okay, you were right about most of it. I just wish people would stop lumping me in with my shitheel of a father.” Asami looked downcast, thinking of her not-so-great interactions she had with him that day.

“Mm, that’s a lovely term: ‘shitheel’.” Korra had started walking again beside the tall woman, she glanced up and noticed a grin cast on those red lips, causing her to bite the bottom lip of her own. “But in all seriousness, I’m sorry. I misjudged certain aspects of your company; back home it has quite the reputation and was one of the reasons my parents didn’t want me coming here.”

“Home?” Asami raised a brow, unable to recall where Korra might have come from.

“Oh, I’m surprised Bolin hadn’t mentioned. I came here from the Southern Water Tribe, my dad is actually the Chief.”

“Wow, have you suffered much culture shock?”

“Yeah, a bit,” Korra decided they should sit down, it was beginning to get too dark to see where they were going. “There’s a few things about Republic City I don’t necessarily ‘get’, but I’m learning.”

Asami chuckled, “Don’t worry about it, I still have trouble ‘getting’ Republic City and I’ve lived here my entire life.” She looked out at the shore, the light of the day was nearly gone and she thought back to the events of the day that lead her here. “Thank you, for dinner, I really needed that.”

Korra smiled and went to rub the back of her neck, “Yeah, I know.” Asami caught a light blush run across those tan cheeks and before she wanted do something about it a bright light flashed far from behind Korra and they both turned to see what it was. A crowd gathered at the south shore, about twenty feet back from the light that shown on a heap covered by a white sheet.

OO

When Mako and Chief arrived at the scene the sun was already gone and the sky was filled with stars; a beautiful cool night, minus the dead body that lay before them. Mako was relieved someone had covered the deceased with a sheet in order to respect the dead and keep onlookers from catching a glimpse. Chief was back at the crowd answering what questions she could while Mako took a look under the sheet. 

It was gruesome, to say the least. The poor soul was male, that much Mako could tell, and what clothing he had on did not look new or high class, it was old, ragged, and frayed. Mako let out a slow sigh, realizing this must be one of the missing homeless. He made other notes regarding postmortem injuries, most likely sustained from however long he had been out in the water. Mako put the sheet back over the dead man and stood back up.

“Hey, Chief?” Mako called to her and she walked over, “We need to conduct an autopsy to figure out the cause of death and who John Doe may be, but I’m pretty sure this was one of the missing persons.” He knitted his brow together and looked solemn, wishing he had figured out what had happened to the man before all of this happened.

Chief Beifong tapped him on the shoulder, she wasn’t one for affection so this meant a lot to Mako, “Hey, you’ve done great and you’ll figure this out. EMS is already here so I’ll have them take him downtown to the coroner. How about you go get some fresh air, hmm?” Mako nodded and began walking back towards the car, halfway there he ran into a couple of familiar faces.

“Asami? Korra? What are you two doing here?” He wasn’t as surprised to see Korra, since Tenzin’s was just up the beach, but Asami with Korra, here? Weird.

“Hey, Mako, we were just out for a walk when we noticed the commotion,” Asami flashed her emerald eyes over at the crowd then back to him, “Is everything okay?”

Mako frowned and rubbed the bridge of his nose, “No, everything isn’t okay. Remember when I mentioned a lot of people within the homeless community have started vanishing? Well, we just found one.”

Korra and Asami both gave looks of grief. Korra spoke first, “Mako, I’m so sorry. I hope you figure out who did this and bring them down. Let us know if we can help with anything.”

Mako was hesitant , “Just...be careful, keep your eyes peeled and your ears perked.”

The girls nodded in response and Asami placed a hand on his arm with a sympathetic smile, “Good luck, champ, we’re here for you.” 

Korra tapped his shoulder, “See you at home, buddy. Bolin and I will be there for you.”

“Thanks guys, you should get going, this place is just going to turn into a media frenzy.” After their goodbye’s the girls parted ways from him and took back up the beach while he went over and leaned against the car, waiting for the Chief to come back. He thought about the man that lay lifeless on the beach, and it pained him deeply. When he finds out tomorrow who this man was, what happened to him, it won’t mean anything until he hunts down the person behind all of this. If this death is at all related to the other disappearances he won’t sleep until he finds whomever thinks they have the power to take away the lives of the misfortunate. Whatever may be happening, Mako needs to get to the bottom of it, before anyone else is tossed away like a sack of trash.

OO

“You-what?” Korra asked in disbelief, they had walked most of their way back by now, trying to get their minds off of the terrible event they just happened upon, and they somehow got on the topic of Asami and Mako’s ancient history.

“Yeah, we dated a while back, Why the sound of disgust?” Asami peered over at the shorter girl, who made a face.

“I’m not disgusted, he’s pretty cute-not my type-it’s just that he’s so…,” she let out a frustrated sigh, “serious,” Korra furrowed her brows and pouted, trying to impersonate Mako’s typical facial gesture whenever he was around. Asami threw her head back with a laugh, holding her stomach while Korra giggled, mostly because the other girl looked so cute.

Once her laughter died out, Asami said, “Yeah, he does that a lot, but he’s a big dork deep down, and now he’s one of my closest friends,” she shrugged at the thought. After a few moments of silence Asami took advantage of Korra’s previous comment, “So...what is your type?”

“Huh?” It was impossible for Korra to hide the deep shades of red that ran along her cheeks as they passed under a lamppost, her eyes grew wide as she considered a response, “Uh...to be honest I didn’t really have many opportunities back home. Being the daughter of the Chief of the tribe made you kind of repulsive to the majority of the community.”

“Ah, boy do I know that feeling,” Asami knew all too well, actually. “All future romantic relationships or interactions tend to be predetermined once they figure out who your dad is. Like you for instance,” Asami stammered for a second once she realized she might have compared Korra to a romantic interest, but she collected herself, “um, like how you thought I was a terrible person just because of my dad. Often times, guys catch wind of who I am and try to get close to me when they’re just looking for a handout.”

“What the hell? I’m sorry, that’s terrible,” Korra felt bad about Asami’s hardship, wishing she could make things better.

“It’s okay, I’ve just ended up giving up on dating...for the most part.” They arrived at Tenzin’s and Asami figured it was time for her to head out, so they went inside to grab her things. When they came out Korra had on her backpack and her skateboard hooked under one arm. Asami eyed the board and asked, “You aren’t riding home on that, are you?”

Korra glanced down at the board then looked up inquisitively with her bright blue eyes, “I usually do, why?”

“Um, maybe because we just saw a body that had washed ashore right over there,” Asami pointed past Korra, then began counting on her fingers, “and it’s nighttime and most of these streets aren’t lit very well, and there are gangs and-”

Korra put up a hand but was smiling that damn smile of her’s, “Okay, okay. If you’re so worried for my safety, what do you suggest?” Asami cocked a brow and gestured over her shoulder to her motorcycle and started walking over to it. To say that Korra was hesitant with riding on a motorcycle would probably be an understatement. “Okay, great, an open-air, fast moving vehicle, what could go wrong?”

Asami tossed her helmet to her and, while straddling the bike, said, “Get on.” Okay, it was more like a demand but she had Korra at attention. Once Korra tucked her skateboard between her back and bag, then put the helmet on, she hopped onto the seat behind Asami. “Hold on,” she warned, as she revved on the bike and it vibrated heavily beneath them. Korra placed her shaky hands on the sides of Asami’s torso, hoping she doesn’t die tonight.

As they took off Korra panicked and wrapped her arms around the woman’s waist, causing Asami to smile deeply to herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I felt bad last chapter was kind of short so here's this! The beginnings of things to come! Please leave some lovin', comments, what-have-you's or even some critiques (we all have room for improvement).
> 
> Get ready for some more blossoming of Korrasami, along with other relationships ;)


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new character is introduced, Bolin believes he is in love, and Suyin shows up. Old flames and new flames galore!

The motorcyclist wasn’t going too fast, to Korra’s relief, but she was surprised by how much she was enjoying the ride. It couldn’t be because her arms were so tightly wrapped around the slender waist of Asami, or the intoxicating scent of firelillies and engine fuel that wafted off the back of the hair that cascaded down the back before her; no way, none of that at all. Asami took a turn and Korra clenched her arms tighter, their two bodies moved together with the bike beneath them, like they were one entire unit. When they arrived at the apartment building Asami parked in the alleyway. When Korra hopped off of the bike her legs were a little wobbly and she had to steady herself, to which Asami stifled a laugh. 

“Hey, be nice, this isn’t really my thing,” Korra pouted playfully, to which Asami chuckled. Korra looked up and saw a light was on in the flat. “Looks like Bolin may be home. Did you still need to chat with him?”

Asami grinned at Korra’s consideration, then thought about how she really didn’t want to go home. “I probably should.” After locking up her bike they took off for the entrance to the building; it had been awhile since Asami had visited the apartment of her two friends, and since Korra’s addition the place seemed cleaner and more homely. 

When they entered the cozy flat Bolin was sitting on the couch watching a mover until he heard them come in. When Naga barked happily he looked over to see his two favorite ladies had entered; he switched the television off and leapt over the back of the couch excitedly, “Guys!” The girls had jumped back, surprised at Bolin’s welcome, but he continued, “Guys, you won’t believe this.” Asami wasn’t sure if she had seen him smile this big since the day he won a free all-you-can-eat meal at Narook’s, so surely whatever he had to say was going to, well, possibly be interesting. 

“Yes, Bolin?” Korra asked, she wasn’t as familiar with Bolin’s typically underwhelming announcements. She pulled out her skateboard and yanked off her backpack, placing them by the front door, then bent down to provide Naga with some loving belly rubs. 

Bolin spread his hands out as if he was giving a presentation, “Tonight, I met the love of my life.” He let out a heavy sigh and looked off into the distance, dramatically.

Asami and Korra shared a glance of amusement, but Asami went first, “Oh really, Bo? Tell us about her!” She put on a smile, all too familiar with Bolin’s infatuations (it was always ‘love at first sight’ and so on), but she cares for her best friend and is always eager to hear him out.

He leaned on the back of a chair and placed his head in his hand, “Her name is Opal,” he grinned widely, “she came here from Zaofu the other day to train as an Emergency Medical Technician, and now helps instruct my CPR classes. And she’s just so smart, and funny, and cute, and did I say smart?! and-ah!” He let out a sound of elation, “She’s perfect, Asami!”

Naga licked the palm of Asami’s hand, making her look down and giggle at the large white fluffball. She looked back over at her old friend and patted him on the shoulders, “So, when’s the big date?”

Bolin looked away bashfully, “I, uh, haven’t really talked to her yet.”

Before Asami could call out Bolin for not taking initiative with this new girl, Korra stood up and interrupted, “Sorry, guys, but I’ve been up since the crack of dawn thanks to somebody,” she glared over at Bolin in jest, “so I’m going to shower then probably hit the hay. Before I go,” she placed a hand on Bolin’s shoulder, “be true to yourself and just talk to the girl. No games. You’re a hunk who wears his heart on his sleeve, I heard girls dig that or something.” She grinned and tapped his shoulder, then began walking off, “And Asami,” she turned back with a grin, “thanks for the ride.” 

The blue eyed girl disappeared into another room, leaving Asami to bite back a big smile. Bolin gave her an amused look and she only responded with a look of confusion and a “What?”

OO

When Chief Beifong and Mako finally left the beach and headed back uptown he admitted to himself that he was emotionally drained. Seeing that body cut right through him, and he wasn’t sure what he could do about it. Reading his mood, Chief cleared her throat, “You did well back there...Detective.” As hard as Mako tried to brood, it was difficult not to ignore Lin’s compliment. 

When they arrived outside the station they were met with another mob of reporters and cameras flashing. Mako and the Chief made their way past them and into the building, leaving the interviews until the morning. However, when they entered the office, they were met by President Raiko and an unfamiliar face. “What’s this?” Lin demanded, always on the defense.

President Raiko cleared his throat, “Chief Beifong, this is Lieutenant Keone Roh.” The short officer stepped forward to shake both their hands; her grip was firm and strong, and she was...well, reasonably attractive, thought Mako. She had a round face, an upturned nose, hair the color of cherry oak, and sharp dark grey-green eyes. She wore a long trenchcoat over a white button-down and grey slacks, gun and badge displayed on her hip. “Lieutenant Roh is here from Ba Sing Se in order to overlook this case and to help stop the threat towards our city.”

“What?” Lin exclaimed, anger completely flooding her face, “You think I can’t run my own people, Raiko?” She was flustered and ready to strike anything within arm’s reach, so Mako very lightly placed a hand on the back of her shoulder to try and calm her down.

“I don’t think that is the President’s intention, Chief. I’m sure there is a perfect explanation, right?” Mako raised his brow to the President, looking for recognition on where he hoped this was going, otherwise Chief Beifong was going to go into a blind rampage.

Raiko’s eyes widened behind his spectacles, and he inhaled, “Oh, yes-I mean no! Chief Beifong, it’s not like that, no. Lieutenant Roh is here to oversee and help with the investigation, but not because of any incompetence on you or your officers’ end. I had figured if this case is as big and complicated as you relayed earlier today that we would need to bring in the big guns.”

“You mean import an Inspector from Ba Sing Se to do the job for us, rather than trust in my team?” Her fists were clenched so tightly it hurt, but she didn’t care, she felt like the rug had been tugged out from underneath her and her fellow officers.

“Chief Beifong,” said Lieutenant Roh, her voice was flat but soft, and she wore a look of determination. With a slight smile, she continued, “I am here to lend a hand and an extra pair of eyes, along with the occasional suggestion. I won’t be taking the lead on this, that’s why we have you. I’m simply here based on my experience back home.”

“And what kind of experience is that?” Beifong wasn’t letting up on the new girl, she still felt uneasy about all of this.

Lieutenant Roh’s eyes fell for a second, lost in thought, then said, “I solved a twenty-year-old cold case. I know a thing or two about catching the bad guy, but you can read all about it in my brief,” she handed the Chief a thick manila folder from her briefcase, “I will see you two in the morning, I had a long flight out here and I’m sure you both have had an even longer day. Goodnight, Chief Beifong, President Raiko, and Officer…” She squinted her dark eyes trying to remember, “I don’t believe I ever got your name.”

“Mako, and it’s actually ‘Detective’ now; I just got a recent promotion” he gave a bashful smile and looked over at the Chief, who rolled her eyes.

“Detective Mako,” she smiled. “It was lovely meeting all of you, goodnight.” She turned and left the office, with Raiko close behind, avoiding being around Lin any longer than he needed to be.

After they had gone, the Chief slammed the folder into Mako’s chest winding him slightly, “Go home, do your homework, get some sleep and be here early.” She began walking to her office, “And don’t flirt with the new girl, spirits, Mako! Have I taught you nothing?”

Mako groaned, “I was not-!” But the slam of Chief’s office doors drowned out whatever he tried to argue.

OO

After Korra slipped into the shower and Bolin finished gushing about this new girl in his life, Asami began telling him all about how her terrible day at work and how her not-so-great interaction with her father had gone. Once she finished, Bolin placed one of his big hands on her shoulder to sympathize, “I’m sorry I couldn’t be there for that meeting, ‘Sami, it sounds like he’s just getting worse.” He shook his head and frowned, “And what you said to your dad…”

“I know,” she sighed sadly. Everything she said she meant, but she never enjoyed making people feel bad, ever.

“You aren’t wrong, it’s just that, well, I don’t have either of my parents. Mako is the only family I’ve got! You and your dad are all you’ve got! I’m not saying go easy on him, you know, given all the bad things he has done, but...I guess what I’m trying to say is that he’s still your dad at the end of the day.” 

“He’s still an awful person at the end of the day, as well, Bolin.” Asami still couldn’t let go of her anger towards her father, he took away the benefits of all those workers just this morning. “I just wish we could talk, normally. Any time we do we either lose patience with one another, or it’s during a meeting and he speaks through his colleagues instead of directly to me. I just-”

The door to the bathroom swung open, and through a cloud of steam out walked Korra with a toothbrush in her mouth while she rung her wet hair out with a towel. She was dressed in a dark blue sports bra with matching briefs that were super tight and really short. The train of thought within Asami’s brain came to a sudden stop when she noticed Korra striding across the room to the kitchen without a care. The woman’s body was absolutely phenomenal, every inch, and it was difficult to tear her eyes away from it. Korra whipped the towel over her shoulder and continued brushing her teeth while poking around the cabinets for some reason, every movement showing off the defined muscles of her shoulders, back, torso and... 

Bolin waved a hand in front of Asami’s vision, bringing her back to her other surroundings and she gave a slight blush, embarrassed by her distraction. Bolin had an evil grin on his face, connecting a few dots and he wanted to hear every possible detail about it. Korra spit the toothpaste into the kitchen sink and turned the faucet on to flush it down, then asked the other two, “I was going to make some tea, would either of you like some?” 

“Sure!” responded Bolin happily.

Asami stood up, suddenly flustered, “Actually, I really should get going, I’m sorry.” She picked up her helmet and started towards the door, “Thanks for the chat, Bolin. And Korra, thanks for dinner.” She gave a genuine smile, “Goodnight, you two.” 

“Goodnight, ‘Sami,” said Bolin as he saw her to the door. He gave her a hug goodbye, then leaned in and whispered, “Good luck with your dad, and uh,” he looked over his shoulder at Korra, then back to Asami, “you should really visit more often.” He winked and she shook her head with a grin as she went out the door.

Bolin came back to the kitchen, where Korra had pulled down their teapot. He leaned against the fridge with that all-knowing smirk, “So, what’s going on with you two?”

OO

Once Chief Beifong completed her paperwork from the evening she locked up her office and headed out, saying her goodbyes to the officers there for the night shift. Once outside there were still a few reporters hoping to catch the Chief of Police for an interview, but Lin was over doing much else in regards to her job. She waved them off and gave a few “fuck off’s” as she shoved through; she just wanted to get home, sip on some firewhiskey, and maybe brawl with her punching bag.

When she arrived at her satomobile she took out her keys and began unlocking the vehicle when someone called out, “Lin!” 

Thinking it was an inconsiderate journalist being a bit pushy, impatient, and naive about how calling her ‘Lin’ was one of her biggest pet peeves, the Chief replied, “If you didn’t understand my “fuck off” from earlier I will gladly show you what I mean.” She yanked out her baton and turned around, ready to threaten whoever wasn’t appreciating her personal space, but when she recognized who it was she dropped the beating stick. “Dammit, Su, what are you doing here?”

Lin’s sister, Suyin Beifong, came to an abrupt stop, now in front of her with a look of confusion, “Are you joking? I’ve been trying to reach you for the past two days, Lin, ever since we got into town.” Lin shrugged, unaware of any messages having been left for her. “Spirits, Lin, put the baton away.”

Lin gave a gruff sigh and put the police baton back in its holster, “Hey, don’t get upset with me, I’ve been extremely busy. In case you haven’t heard by now there has been a murder and I’m needing to help pick up the pieces.”

“I haven’t, to be honest. I have been a little busy showing my daughter Opal around the city, she’s training to be an EMT at the hospital. I thought that perhaps her aunt would love to show her niece some of the great aspects of the city, but I’m guessing a dead body might not be best.”

“Oh, I dunno, it’s not like she wouldn’t be seeing them all the time in her line of work,” Lin chuckled, then stopped when she saw Su’s look of disappointment, “Sorry.”

Su rolled her green eyes, “You never change, do you?” She crossed her arms over her chest, her flowing emerald green sleeves folding up here and there.

Lin Beifong shrugged, she hadn’t seen her sister in many years. Suyin lived in Zaofu with her massive litter and nerd for a husband, Baatar. Together they ran a liberal arts school for the “specially gifted and talented”; Lin tried not to gag at the thought. They had never gotten along when they were younger, they butted heads and even threw a few punches more than they talked. Once they were old enough Lin took up after her mother in law enforcement here in Republic City, while Su got the hell out of dodge, but not before they had their biggest blow-out. Lin cringed at the memory, her scar tingling, “So, who’s ‘we’?”

“Well, there’s Opal, of course, and my husband Baatar wanted to visit. It has been a long time since we’d been in the city and he wanted to scope out some of the designs of your newest buildings.” Lin stifled a yawn, but Su continued, “A few of my committee members came along to recruit more students for the school, and there’s also Kya who just got in today,” Su gave a grin.

Lin gulped, her face flushed and her senses heightened all of a sudden. She tried her best to keep her emotions at bay, “Oh? What’s she doing here?” She failed.

Su just chuckled, “She said something about visiting Tenzin and his family, and an old friend.” She gave a wink at that last part, “So, when will I be able to whisk you away from work in order to have you show my daughter why she came here?”

Lin thought for a minute, her thoughts muddled, she figured Mako would be able to handle tomorrow well on his own and would relay anything of interest in his brief. “Tomorrow should be good.”

“Alright, see you then.” The sisters departed without the need for a hug, proper physical interaction had never been one of their “things”.

Lin hopped into her car and started it up, taking off towards her flat across town. She let out a heavy sigh, Kya was the sister of Tenzin, and she taught up at the Beifong Academy of the Arts. She had always been a free-spirited world traveler, and when Lin was still dating Tenzin about a million years ago they had met briefly. To say that Kya was the gust of wind that blew her out of her relationship and into a new direction, would be one way of putting it. After a few minutes of many thoughts and fond memories flowing around in her head she said, with a smile, “Kya.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Stay tuned for more fluff next chapter, and Mako hanging out with his new partner!
> 
> And yes, the newbie Officer Keone Roh is supposed to be based on the unknown what's-her-face Operator character from the show, but I brought something new to the table with her. Also, 'Roh' is mostly based off of my favorite minor character on Star Trek: The Next Generation (Ensign Roh), not 'Iroh'.
> 
> As usual, feel free to visit my Tumblr (username: avatarbifong) for updates on the story (along with ideas on possible others) and also Legend of Korra/AtLA posts!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mako learns a lot about his new partner from Ba Sing Se, Bolin discovers his family is bigger than he thought, and Korra figures out who Kya's "old flame" is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, I'm about a week late with giving you guys a new chapter! Here it is, and it's extra long because I feel bad about the delay and this weekend is a busy one on my end. So, enjoy!

Mako slumped into his chair at his desk, taking a big gulp from his coffee, feeling groggier than ever. He had been up late reading through Lieutenant Roh’s impressive file. She had received top marks from the police academy in Ba Sing Se, and climbed the ladder to lead Investigator very quickly; she was the youngest to do so. As soon as she made investigator she took on the cold case she had mentioned cracking. It didn’t take Mako long to figure out the main motivator in Lt. Roh’s achievements. Upon looking over the paperwork he learned that the case involved the murder of a young kid, Keone’s older brother, Haku Roh. After reading through the gorey details of the original case, it seemed like Haku’s death may have been an accident, the boy had fallen from a ten-story apartment building. The case was thrown out by the court due to a “lack” of evidence, and everyone went on about life like normal.

Sixteen years later, after proving again and again how dedicated to her career she is, Inspector Roh entered the Investigation Bureau and demanded the cold case to be dusted off and reexamined. Naturally, there were roadblocks; “conflict of interest” claims, accusations that she was looking into things that weren’t there, threats of firing her, and so on. Eventually, after some hair-pulling and nail biting, the case was handed over to Roh and her team; then began a gruelling two year process of tracking down eyewitnesses, previous suspects, further examination of evidence, and many all-nighters. According to the paperwork, Lt. Roh did not once let her familial relation to the victim interfere with the investigation, and was thorough in all of her findings. 

One day Roh and her partner had a lead after finding a connection between a previous suspect and Haku Roh. Turns out, this guy had gone to the same school as Haku, and due to his track record from around that time up until today he wasn’t a very successful drug dealer, extortionist, or thief. Lt. Roh and her partner took off to apprehend the culprit but were gunned down by his gang; they held them off for as long as they could, but her partner went down with a bullet to the main artery in his neck. She took down everyone she could until only her brother’s murderer remained; she made the arrest after sustaining several serious injuries. She was promoted to Lieutenant, and then took a leave of absence for nearly a year before returning to work where she had completed a few small cases here and there.

Mako let out a heavy sigh and rubbed his temples thinking back to all of the information he went over last night; it was heartbreaking to learn that the Lieutenant lost her brother so young, but was able to solve the case so many years later only to lose her own partner in the process. There was a knock on his desk rocking him out of his thoughts; he looked up to see that it was the secretary handing him a post-it. It was a note from Chief Beifong informing him that she will be out for the day due to “family matters”, which to Mako was a red flag from the start, but she ended the note with “good luck today, Detective” and he grinned. He still thought the message was very strange; not once had the Chief mentioned having any family here or anywhere, at any time. He figured she had a mother...she had to have come from somewhere, right?

Once again he was jolted out of his thoughts but this time by the presence of Lt. Roh walking towards his desk with a soft smile, she was carrying her own cup of coffee and was in a similar outfit as the night before, “Detective, are you ready to get the day started?”

Mako stood up, “Absolutely. Where to first?” It felt strange, he felt like he knew every aspect of her life now and she knew nothing about him outside of his job.

“I was thinking we really need to check out that body before anything else, see what the coroner has found, and if the toxicology results are ready.”

“Sounds good to me, let’s go.”

OO

Bolin’s job as lifeguard on duty was simple today; due to the unfortunate discovery of that poor dead guy last night there weren’t a whole lot of people trying to make it to the beach today. So naturally, Bolin was at his post trying his best not to nod off while Tenzin’s younger kids built sand castles and Korra was out riding the few waves she could catch. It was a hot and slightly breezy day, which only brought the occasional rideable wave her way. Most of the time she spent laying on her board out in the calm waters, thinking about the past few days, wrapping her brain around everything.

She used to be really good at judging someone right from the start; she could tell what their intentions were, good or bad, and if they were worth her time; but for the past few days she had been proven wrong time and time again by this girl. Regardless of Asami’s acceptance of her apology last night, she still felt bad for being completely wrong about her; it was apparent to her now that Asami and her team are probably what’s keeping this city in one piece. 

Last night, after she shut down Bolin’s poking and prodding into whatever may or may not be going on between the two women, she asked him if Asami was alright. He explained that Asami is completely dedicated to her job, but her father and his colleagues can really be a barrier whenever it came to things running smoothly. It takes a lot out of Asami and she often times feels like she has no one to turn to. That really stuck with Korra; she knew a thing or two about loneliness, being an only child and the daughter of the Chief of the Southern Water Tribe typically left her to entertaining herself and hanging out with Naga, but she still had her parents and Katara. She couldn’t imagine going through Asami’s particular situation, constantly having your own father keeping you from achieving your true dreams and desires.

A wave came slamming into the daydreamer, knocking her off of her board and swirling her up into its curl, spinning her round and not letting go. Korra grasped for some form of leverage, trying to pull herself back up to the surface. When she finally was brought back to the light of day and was no longer submerged she inhaled deeply, trying to regain composure. Her surf leash had wrapped around one leg and she went to untangle herself, noticing Bolin had ran over from his post. She waved him off, “I’m fine!” Spirits that was embarrassing, she thought to herself.

Once freed she made her way back onto the beach, avoiding eye contact with Bolin and picking up her towel to dry off. He had his arms crossed and a big grin on his face as he walked up to her, “Something on your mind, or do you like wiping out?”

Korra narrowed her eyes at him, wishing he didn’t already know her so well, “I was following your lead and taking a nap.” She continued walking past him towards Tenzin’s.

“Hey, if I was napping would I have rushed down here to save your life? Probably not. And I’ll have you know-oh, spirits!” He gasped and she looked back at him to see what he was having a fit over, then followed his gaze back up the beach towards a group of people walking down the sidewalk near Tenzin’s. She recognized the guardian of the brothers, Lin Beifong, but not the others; there was a younger girl about their age with bobbed dark hair, an older woman who looked very similar to Lin, and a man with grey streaks in his hair, a goatee and glasses.

“What is it Bo?” She raised an eyebrow.

He whispered, “It’s her...Opal!” Realization dawn on Korra, remembering how he had described the girl of his dreams just the night before. “But I don’t understand why she’s with Chief Mom.”

Korra chuckled, she still couldn’t get over Bolin calling one of the most self-controlled, stone-hearted persons she had ever met “Chief Mom”. Granted, she had never seen him say it to the other woman’s face, but she figured it never went down well. Lin waved them down and they walked over to the group, all the while Bolin complained under his breath about his worlds colliding. The Chief was in uniform; never truly off the clock, always on duty. Bolin noticed she looked agitated, more than usual; then there she was, Opal grinning and waving his way.

There was an awkward pause before Korra decided to cut the silence with, “Hello everyone, I’m Korra.” She beamed a smile, then shook Opal’s hand, along with the two others’. “So what brings you all down to the beach today with Chief Beifong?” Korra switched her surfboard from one arm to the other.

The older woman neither Korra or Bolin knew looked over to Lin, then back to them curiously, “Don’t tell me Lin hasn’t told you about her baby sister and family from Zaofu!”

Korra looked over at Bolin, whose head tilted to the side and eyes looked like they were about to bulge right out of their sockets. Then she looked over to Lin, who began digging her foot in the ground. “Um, apparently not.” 

“Sister?!” Bolin exclaimed at the Chief, “So, does this make Opal my...cousin?”

“What? No!” the Chief blurted, “That’s not how it works, Bolin-” Lin cut herself off, pinching the bridge of her nose, and groaned, “Okay, so this is my sister Suyin, her husband Baatar, and their daughter Opal, whom you already know for some reason.”

“I started overseeing his CPR classes yesterday,” chimed in Opal with a smile.

“Great,” grumbled the Chief as she literally waved off the interruption, wishing this would all end soon, “This is Bolin, my…” she struggled with the correct vernacular. “I took in Bolin and his brother Mako about thirteen years ago.”

Suyin’s eyes and kind smile only widened, “Lin, you have two boys?” She moved forward to embrace Bolin in a big hug and he beamed. 

“Fostered, yes.” She swayed uncomfortably.

“You can call me Aunt Su!” Su ignored her sister’s discomfort, looking Bolin over happily checking him out. “You sure are a husky guy, aren’t you? You like to eat?”

Korra decided she should bow out of the majorly awkward and confusing family drama and get back to work, “I should get going, it was nice meeting all of you.” No one paid her any attention, making her slipping away simple.

Bolin was completely beside himself and he was struggling to wrap his head around everything. The Chief had never been affectionate or personal, which was a bigger struggle for him than it ever was for Mako. Chief had always been private, never shared anything from her past unless it related to her job. He’ll always remember the day he found out her and Master Tenzin used to be a “thing”, but he kept the information to himself, deciding digging up old history wouldn’t be at the top of Chief’s To Do List.

But now, here he was with a new extension of his family, and it so happened to include the girl of his dreams. 

OO

The coroner opened the small metal door and pulled out the shelf that held the deceased John Doe. Even though he had just seen the corpse the night before, it did little to prepare Mako in seeing the dead man under the bright fluorescent lights of the morgue. Half of the flesh on the man’s face was missing, probably chewed up by fish while he floated out in the ocean for who knows’ how long; but the rest of him looked a little stranger than typical washed up bodies look. There was a green hue just beneath the skin, and lumpy, red amorphous swellings spread about the body.

Lt. Roh spoke up first, her voice steady, “Cause of death?”

The coroner, Dr. Li-Yung sighed, “Well, we determined it wasn’t a drowning; a lot of these wounds were received post-mortem, but after we ran a few toxicology tests we found traces of several chemicals and drugs that may or may not be held accountable for this man’s death.”

“What came up?” Mako asked, tossing his coffee cup in the trash.

The coroner went over to his desk and picked up a file, flipping it open, “You see here?” He pointed to a graph, “These are all of the usual things we look for in overdoses, and the amount of drugs within his system didn’t amount to the cause of death. What probably did it was the combination of exposure, abuse, starvation, and a couple of the drugs and chemicals we found."

Keone read down the list, “Hormonal steroids, methamphetamine...Ethyl carbamate? Wasn’t that an old medicinal drug?”

“Yes,” replied the Dr. Li-Yung, “until they realised it was discovered to be purely a carcinogen. These findings just seem very strange to me. Why would he have used any and all of these drugs and chemicals?”

“He didn’t,” Mako said, almost inaudibly. His orange eyes flashed up at Roh quickly, “He didn’t do this to himself, he must have been a test subject. Look at him, he wasn’t a street rat junkie, he probably suffered from malnutrition and exposure before his abduction thanks to life on the streets. All of this stuff could have been administered to him by another party to see what may happen in the long run, until they grew bored with him or he keeled over.”

“Perhaps.” the coroner scratched his white patchy beard in thought, “I’ll do further tests and body examinations and will get back to you.”

"Can you also figure out who he may have been? I'd like to contact his family if we can." Mako had said, his face grim, the coroner nodded in response.

“Thank you Dr. Li-Yung,” said Lt. Roh, “Please reach us with anything you find as soon as possible. Good day.” Mako followed her out of the morgue and to her vehicle, his thoughts all a mess. “Care for some lunch?” she asked.

“How can you think of food after what we just saw?” 

She shrugged, turning the vehicle on, “It helps me think and we have a lot of brainstorming to do. You’re the one who came up with the idea that all of those disappearances could be connected to this dead guy, and I think you have a good hunch about what happened to him. So, naturally, I want to go get some noodles.”

Mako couldn’t help but smirk.

OO

When Korra came into the shop there were two customers strolling about the store, probably just window shopping. She rolled her eyes and walked over to Jinora who was working the register and had her nose buried deep in a book. The younger girl looked up, putting her book down, “Oh hey, Korra. How were the waves today?”

“They were alright, a few good ones every once in a while. I let my mind slip for a moment and let a good one take me out though,” she chuckled at herself.

Jinora raised an eyebrow, “Something on your mind? Or, perhaps...someone?” Korra narrowed her eyes at her. “Maybe even a raven-haired someone with shiny green eyes?” Jinora’s knowing grin grew.

Korra groaned and rolled her eyes, “Ugh, not you too! Have you been talking to Bolin? Oh forget it.” She swiped her hands through the air, “There’s nothing going on there, okay? Jeez!” 

Jinora tilted her head and smirked, “Uh huh. You know I attended dinner with you last night as well, or were you only focused on one other person?” Jinora placed her hands on her hips defiantly. 

“Enough!” she laughed, “Get back to work or I’ll tell your dad you’re just reading smut novels when you should be paying attention to the customers.” Jinora’s cheeks flushed pink. “Yeah, that’s right, I know all about your obsession with poorly written princes falling in love with the sad peasant girl.” Korra poked her finger in the air at Jinora, then left the poor girl at the register and went to the back of the shop, laughing to herself. She walked through the back door and into the kitchen into a heated discussion between Tenzin and-wait, is that, “Kya?” 

Both Tenzin and Kya stopped their arguing and turned to see Korra in the doorway; they both looked relieved by the interruption. Kya’s face lightened up and she walked over to embrace Korra, “I almost didn’t recognize you! You’ve grown into such a beautiful woman, I bet you’re beating back the boys and girls!” Korra blushed at the comment, Kya smiled devilishly and gave a wink.

“Kya,” grumbled Tenzin, his usual scowl only deepening.

After Kya stuck her tongue out at her baby brother, which only received a rolling of the eyes in return, she turned back to Korra and hooked an arm around the shorter woman, guiding them out of the kitchen and onto the back patio. Kya, Tenzin’s big sister, hadn’t changed a bit since the time Korra saw her last, which was about seven years ago. Kya’s hair was still very long and wavy, but it had become a shiny light grey. “She had always been a free spirit,” Katara had said; Kya was always traveling around the world, experiencing new wild things, and having endless tales to tell. Korra had consistently looked up to her and envied her life, which was probably one of the reasons why Katara pushed her into coming to Republic City to begin her own adventures.

“So,” Kya began as they sat down comfortably on a loveseat, “How has the training with Mr. Pouty Face been?”

Korra chuckled, “Great, actually. He can be a pain sometimes, sure, but I know Master Tenzin always means well. He’s patient, most of the time, which I honestly still need right now. We just started our meditation sessions and I’m kind of having difficulty with it.” Korra made a face, slightly frustrated with herself for not picking up on meditating as easily as she did most things.

Kya grinned, “Difficulty with emptying that noggin’ of yours?” She lightly tapped on Korra’s head, making her giggle. Kya sighed and looked out at the garden, “I always had trouble too. I’m a forward thinker, believe it or not, so I’m constantly thinking about the next big thing I want to try, the next destination on my To-Do List, the next lady on my To-Do List.” She raised a brow and nudged Korra with her elbow.

“Oh spirits, Kya,” Korra snickered, “I sure have missed you.”

Kya held Korra’s hand and gave it a squeeze, “I’ve missed you too, kiddo.”

“You know, I haven’t asked why you’re here.”

Kya raised her eyebrows playfully, “Oh, am I welcomed young apprentice?” She poked Korra in the rib, “I’m just visiting, taking a break from the busy life of teaching painting at the University. Thought it was time to see how the Tenzin clan was doing, along with one of my favorite little surfers,” she smiled, “And maybe I’ll hit up an old conquest.” The smile became more sly and she shrugged.

Korra only shook her head and smirked, she loved the way Kya had always carried herself with so much confidence and humor. She wished she could be even half as carefree as the woman before her, it would be helpful with some scenarios in her life. Before she could ask for some advise about a particular person who’s been on her mind lately, the Beifongs and Bolin came from around the corner of the house, to which Kya said under her breath, “Speak of the devil herself.”

OO

“So, what are you thinking?” Lt. Roh took in a large mouthful of noodles and slurped them up. 

“About what?” Mako had been transfixed by Keone’s large appetite and was caught off guard by her question.

Roh gulped her food down, her voice sounding a little deeper for the moment, “The case, of course. What do you think the big picture may be?” She grabbed one of the steamed dumplings up with her chopsticks and plopped it into her mouth. 

“Oh, well, I feel like there’s definitely something bigger than the usual “poor old homeless schmuck O.D.’d” and blah blah blah. There’s too much evidence outweighing that possibility, so I believe there’s way more to it. There’s the dozens of other homeless people missing; the fact that he washed up at the beach and the cause of death wasn’t drowning, but probably from the combination of all those different drugs and abuse; and about all of those drugs? Well, I’m sticking by the belief that he was being used as a guinea pig or something.”

Keone nodded along to everything he made points on, occasionally biting into something and sipping her water, “Well, I’m worried about all of those other missing persons. I really think this case, if it involves all of them, has no time to sit back to see what happens next. We need to get out there and pinpoint what may truly be happening and catch all those responsible for this terrible act of violence and inconsideration to those less fortunate than us.”

Mako hadn’t realized he had paused mid-chewing of his meal and had left his mouth agape at what Keone had said, surprised and bewildered by her position on the subject. He caught himself and swallowed his food, “So what are you suggesting we do?”

“Easy, ‘undercover stakeouts’.”

OO

Korra was done with work for the day and was making her way back home on her longboard after being caught in the middle of the most uncomfortable cloud of sexual tension she had ever unwillingly been apart of. The way the Chief and Kya interacted most likely seemed normal and harmless to the average onlooker, but knowing Kya and her ways, Korra knew better. An unpleasant shiver went through her for the fifth time in the past hour at the thought of Chief Beifong knocking boots with one of the most influentially strong women in her life. Granted, most of the weirdness was the fact that Lin was the boys’ guardian, and she had always been described as being as far removed from personal encounters as possible. Korra just didn’t get it, but Kya had always been a wild card, and she didn’t know the Chief on any kind of personal level so she really had no place in being grossed out.

While kicking off the pavement as she made her way up an incline of an alleyway, she came out to one of the streets. As she turned out and began making her way along the curb, she was clipped by a vehicle, causing her to lose her footing and come barreling down onto the sidewalk hard, knocking the wind out of her. There was a screeching of tires as the vehicle stopped abruptly; Korra turned over onto all fours, gasping for breath, unable to focus on anything else. There was a slamming of a car door and someone came over, bending down towards Korra. “Hey, are you okay? I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you there, I-”

Korra managed to look over through the strands of her disheveled hair to see a pair of shiny green eyes she’d become accustomed to. After a few coughs and gasps Korra said, “You’ve got to be kidding me!”

“Hello to you too,” Asami said, frowning, her eyebrows bunching up. “Are you hurt?”

“No, but I think I dropped my dignity somewhere around here, care to help me find it?” Korra gave a grin and Asami rolled her eyes.

“Oh stop that, let’s get you up.” She helped Korra stand up and brush her off.

Korra looked around herself, then her face fell as she walked over a few feet to pick up her busted longboard. She looked back at Asami with a perturbed look on her face, extending the two halves of her board. 

“I’m sorry, really I am. I honestly didn’t see you.” The tall woman hunched over, clearly deeply upset. Korra believed her, of course, she didn’t think that Asami had done it on purpose.

She walked over to the other woman, and in a soft voice said, “Hey, it’s okay. I’m alright, just a little shook up.” She hooked the broken board under her arm and placed a hand onto Asami’s shoulder.

Asami finally looked up to Korra’s cyan eyes, seeing that the shorter girl was at least trying to convince her she was alright. “The least I can do is either take you straight home and get you cleaned up or get you a new board. Or both. Whatever you want!” Asami waved her hands out, like she was offering the world.

Korra laughed, “I have another board, it’s okay. But if you insist, I could use a ride.”

“Sure! Get in!” Asami rushed back over to her idle vehicle, the ever-so-trusty Satomobile, and got behind the wheel. Korra put the broken board in the back seat with her bag and sat down with some discomfort. As they pulled out Asami glanced over at the other girl, making sure she was buckled in safely. She had noticed the tan woman was in another pair of cut-off shorts, high-tops, and a deep blue scoop-necked shirt that brought out those astounding blue eyes of her’s. “So, any pain? I’ll happily take you to the hospital if you think you’ve sprained, broken, or even deeply bruised something.”

Korra smiled and shook her head, “I might end up with a wicked bruise on my ass but other than that I’m totally fine.” Korra looked out at the buildings they passed, storefronts with flowers and food stands billowing out front of them.

“And what about that blood?” Asami asked.

“Hmm?” Korra glanced down at her right knee, a small gash was there with flecks of gravel imbedded around it. “Oh, would you look at that.” Korra raised a curious brow.

“Or that?” Asami pointed at an elbow that also had suffered a decent scrape.

She lifted one arm , then the other, twisting them this way and that and causing the biceps to bulge with each movement while trying to see where Asami had pointed out. Once she gave up Korra shrugged, “Oh well, I’ll live, but thanks for trying to kill me anyway,” she chided. “I thought you forgave me for being a jerk to you the other night, now you’re literally driving me off the road?” She chuckled to herself.

“Hey, be nice! Otherwise, you’re giving me reason!” Asami smiled. I guess joking about unfortunate scenarios that could have ended tragically was better than wallowing over them, she thought to herself, picking up on Korra’s way of dealing with things. It wasn’t too long before they arrived at the apartment and Asami parked in the same alleyway as before.

“You don’t have to come up,” Korra began, grabbing her broken longboard and backpack out from the backseat. “But if you feel as guilty as you’ve been putting off, you can come make sure I haven’t suffered from a concussion, I guess.” Asami’s eyes fell on that crooked smile she had decided then and there was her new favorite thing; it was difficult tearing her gaze from those dark lips.

She nodded and said, “Yes, I would like to make sure you’re okay, regardless of the dozens of times you’ve told me you are.” She gave a cheeky grin and they went up to the flat; they were greeted by Naga and a chirpy Pabu, Bolin’s red-haired cat. Asami scratched behind the slender cat’s ear and received a heavy purr in return. “Do you have a first aid kit?”

“There are several benefits to living with a police officer and a lifeguard, you know,” Korra chided. She took a big plastic box off from the top of the refrigerator and brought it over to the coffee table and laid it down. She walked back over to the fridge and opened it up, “Would you like something to drink before you fix me up, Dr. Sato? We have water, something green and fluffy that’s been in here since I moved in, and...kombucha?”

“I’m fine, thank you,” she sat down and opened up the kit, taking out a few things. 

“Cool, more water for me,” Korra walked back over to the couch and plopped down, gulping water out of a glass like a fish. “So, what’s the dealio? What’s the damage? Am I gonna die?” Korra waved her eyebrows up and down playfully.

Asami just shook her head and picked up a pair of plastic tweezers, “I’m going to use this thing to get those bits of gravel out of your wound, sound good?”

Korra shrugged, ”And what if I want rocks imbedded in me?”

“Well, the wound can become infected and you’ll have to get your limbs chopped off!”

Korra let out a sigh, “You’re no fun.”

Asami just rolled her eyes and groaned, “Turn around, I need to get to the big scrape that’s on the back of that arm.” Korra finally began listening to reason and turned with her back to Asami, bringing her arm back a bit for the slender hands to begin their work. Bit by bit she picked the particles of dirt and rock from the cuts, all the while Korra didn’t flinch an inch. “So, what’s it like living with these guys?” She thought chatting a bit would be helpful in keeping Korra’s mind busy.

“You’ve known them longer than me, but it’s been great. Bolin is like a big burly teddy bear full of sweetness, innocence and fun, he’s like the brother I never had who knows me so well already. Mako on the other hand…” Korra paused for a second, “Well, he’s honestly never around, all work and no play for the most part, but I get that. He takes his work seriously, somebody’s got to and I’m glad he does, especially now with everything that’s going on.”

“That’s nice,” Asami mused, putting down the tweezers and pulling out the antiseptic spray, “Okay, forewarning, this is going to sting.” She sprayed on the injury and Korra jumped and yelped, “I’m sorry, did that hurt?”

“No, it was cold!” She gave a dramatic shiver and Asami chuckled. “All done?” She glanced over her shoulder.

“Nope! Give me that knee,” Asami demanded, to which Korra turned back around and kicked a foot up on the table; her leg flexed slightly, the muscles in her calf and quads flexed with each movement. Asami tried to not drop her medical supplies when she caught herself staring and nearly drooling over the curves of Korra’s physique. Once she gathered herself she wiped up the spilled blood and bandaged the knee efficiently. “Okay, I think my job may be done here,” she gave a smug smile at her handy work, “Anything else I can help you with?”

Korra kept a sudden urge to bite her lip at the beauty in Asami’s smile. She wanted to savor the sweetness in Asami’s touches she had given Korra while patching her back up. “You know you didn’t have to do this, but,” she paused, waiting for Asami to look up, “you have great bedside manner.” Asami’s red lips curled up into an enticing smile, and before Korra could act upon a gut feeling the door to the apartment swung open and in came Bolin moaning loudly, then collapsing onto the floor behind the couch. The girls sat up and looked behind the couch at Bolin’s body splayed across the ground. “Um...what’s up, Bo?” 

He moaned out cries of sadness, “My life is ruined and fantastic at the same time and I don’t know what to do about it.”

Asami looked to Korra with a look of confusion, mouthing “What?”

A thought came to Korra’s brain, “Bo, is this about Chief Beifong’s family from Zaofu?” He groaned in response, “And how Opal is Chief Beifong’s niece?” 

“Yes!” he wailed. 

Korra shrugged and gave an all-knowing nod, “Well I don’t see what the problem is, buddy. So you have an extension to your new family, isn’t that great?”

Asami chimed in, “And that’s amazing, Bo! Do you like them and vice versa?”

Bolin flailed over onto his back, “That’s the problem, I love them! Opal’s mom wants me to call her Aunt Su!” He clenched his fists into his thick curly hair and his face twisted from one emotion to the next. “I thought I found the girl of my dreams, and she turns out to be Chief Mom’s niece! What do I do?”

The girls looked up from the distraught boy to one another, trying to look for the answer, when Asami said, “We drink!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh man! Is there drunken silly time coming up next chapter? Stay tuned ;)


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Events from the night before resurface, some of it good, some of it not so good. Lin discovers she’s made a grave mistake. Bolin’s wingwomen come in to help the poor guy out. Also, ANGST ANGST ANGST. Sorry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise! Here's a really early post, enjoy :)

A wave of aches and nausea swept through Asami as she awoke in an unfamiliar dark place. She lay on her stomach under a pile of blankets, lifted her head up slightly from a pillow and had difficulty focusing her sight on anything. She clenched her eyes shut and buried her head under the pillow after the room began spinning, and she moaned, “Oh, spirits, make it stop.” Asami recognized the aroma coming off the bedsheets but couldn’t place where she knew it from or why it comforted her, but it reminded her of the ocean.

“Make what stop?” came a raspy voice from above. Asami lifted the pillow warily, peeking out to see who may be attempting to converse with her, or if she was actually hallucinating instead. In the doorway stood the short dark-skinned surfer girl that had been on her mind for days; she was leaning against the doorframe, with those strong arms folded against her chest, and that damn grin was curved up on her face. She had on a short pair of boardshorts and a loose tank top, to which Asami noticed lacked any kind of, well, support underneath.

“Oh,” that comforting smell made a lot of sense now. Korra’s eyebrows rose at Asami’s comment and attempt at sitting up, the movement stirred up the dizziness again and she let out a groan of displeasure, “Oh no.”

Korra walked over and patted Asami’s back, having her lay back down, “You probably should just keep laying right there, I’ll go get you some water.” She left the room, Asami could hear her walking barefoot across the apartment and into the kitchen, opening cupboards and turning on the faucet. After a few seconds she heard the other girl come back into the room, “Okay, if you can manage to drink it, here’s some water that I promise will make you feel better. I promise,” she insisted after Asami looked at her suspiciously.

She held onto the glass and was capable of sipping slowly from it; each gulp was refreshing. Once she emptied the cup of its contents she handed it back to Korra, “Good, I’m going to go get you more, you should try and sit up in the meantime.” Korra was gone again, and Asami attempted to move, feeling better than before-still woozy, but better. Once she flipped herself over onto her backside she scooted up into a sitting position and took in her surroundings. The blinds were drawn thankfully, so no direct sunlight, but the room was warm and inviting nonetheless, as simple and small as it was.

“I’m back!” Korra chimed, then when Asami winced at the sound she whispered, “Sorry, here you go,” another glass of water was handed her way, this time with two little white pills. Asami raised a brow, “Don’t worry, they’re just painkillers to help with that headache and those aches and pains I’m sure you’re dealing with after last night.” 

Last night? Asami thought to herself as she popped the pills in her mouth and gulped them down. Trying to recall the evening before was proving difficult, she couldn’t conjure anything in memory. “I…” she began and faltered, Korra sat down on the side of the bed, causing all kinds of thoughts to come to mind; specifically, the realization that she was in Korra’s room, in Korra’s bed, and, she looked down at her attire, Korra’s clothes? Oh no, she thought, what the actual fuck happened?!

Korra tapped on Asami’s knee with a smile and an all-knowing glimmer in her blue eyes, “You were out of hand last night, Miss Sato,” she chuckled and bit her lip to keep from laughing outright.

Asami’s eyes widened, her mind racing to a million different things, “I’m sorry,” Asami croaked, then took a gulp of water, “but I’m having difficulty recalling what may have happened. I mean, did we...” her gaze had stayed on the blanket she had bunched up in her hand, unable to bring herself to look Korra in the eyes, “did you and I, you know-”

It took Korra a little while to put two and two together before she realized what Asami was implying, then she had a sharp inhale of breath and her cheeks flushed a deep red, “Ohhhhh!” She stood up from the bed, suddenly aware of what Asami may have been thinking this entire time, “No, we didn’t, uh, do that, no.” She gave a nervous laugh and scratched the back of her neck, “Wow, I’m sorry.”

Asami waved a hand in the air, “No, I am. I thought because I’m here, in your bed, in your clothes-”

“Those are actually Bolin’s,” Korra smiled bashfully, her blush slowly receding.

“Oh,” Asami let out a sigh, “I thought…”

Korra waved her hands about, “Okay, here, let me try and explain what went down last night before your head explodes,” she sat down on the bed again, “So, this is why I’m never drinking with you again.”

OO

Lin was kicking and jabbing at the punching bag that hung and swayed from the ceiling; kick, jab-jab, kick. She was embarrassed and annoyed with how she interacting with Kya the day prior when they had bumped into one another at Tenzin’s. She was flippant in her interactions and regretted how awkward and rude she had been; it was just the entire situation with the family drama completely throwing her off, she couldn’t construe exactly what she had wanted to say to Kya. She hadn’t seen the stunning woman in nearly three years, but every time they were in the same room it was as if time had been rewound; Lin couldn’t act like herself around her.

There was a chime signaling the ring of her doorbell and she stopped beating up the bag and held it still, wondering why anyone would be visiting her. “One second,” she barked at the door, picked up a towel and wiping the sweat from her face and the back of her neck. 

She continued dabbing around to her chest as she went and opened the door and dropped the towel, completely flustered by the presence of Kya standing in front of her. She stammered out, “Wh-what are you doing-uh, here I mean?”

Kya rolled her blue eyes and grinned, “What do you think I’m doing here?” She put an arm out and placed a hand upon Lin’s chest and began moving her back through the doorway; she turned them around and pushed her back against the door, closing it. Her sinuous body pressed closely against Lin’s as she brought her lips to her pale neck, taking her by surprise. Kya kissed up and down and around Lin’s neck, collarbone and shoulders, coming up to nibble tenderly on her earlobe; Lin grasped onto the other woman’s hips and drove them even closer.

“I…” words failed her as Kya placed a hand upon a breast and cupped it deeply, causing an unwarranted gasp to escape from Lin’s mouth. Then hunger overcame her and she demanded, “I want you. Now.” She hooked her hands behind Kya’s legs and lifted her up, carrying her a short way to the sturdy dining room table, and sat her upon it. Lin took Kya’s face into her hands and kissed her deeply, passionately.

Kya grasped onto the other woman’s strong back and pulled her close while Lin’s hands slid down her waist, then began hiking up her loose dress. As the longhaired woman laid back on the hard wooden table, Lin softly kissed up along her leg, getting closer and closer to that lovely inbetween spot. Right before reaching her destination, Kya moaned out to her, “Chief!”

Lin pulled back and made a face, “What? Don’t call me that.” She went back to kissing Kya’s thick and supple thigh, then was interrupted by the other woman exclaiming ‘Chief’ once again. “You-of all people-don’t call me that, because-”

“Chief Beifong!” a hand grabbed ahold of her shoulder and shook her awake and into her true surroundings. She nearly fell out of her office chair but Mako’s hand was still placed on her shoulder, a look of concern across his face. “Chief, are you okay?”

“Of course I am,” Lin sat up and adjusted her uniform, “Have you never seen someone fall asleep at their desk before?” She grabbed her cup of coffee off her desk and took a sip, then instantly spit it back into the mug; it had gone cold. Spirits, how long was I out? she thought.

“Well, yes, plenty of times,” he said, “but not you.” His eyebrows were still knit together with worry.

“What’s the matter?” He was making her nervous with all of this tip-toeing.

He looked away for a little while, pondering on whether he should say anything about it then decided he should, “It’s just that note you left yesterday, about ‘family business’, I know it didn’t involve Bolin or I, so was that code for something else? Something not good?”

Beifong understood now and gave a sigh, then tapped his shoulder, “No, I apologize I haven’t been more, uh...thorough in the ongoings of my personal life.” Mako gave her a funny look which she chose to ignore, and said bluntly, “My sister and her family are visiting.”

Several emotions flashed across the young man’s face before he forced a smile and said, flatly, “That’s nice, I hope they have enjoyed their time here. Oh,” Then his expression went back to something somber, “originally I came in here to hand you information on another body that has turned up, just like the last one, this time found in one of the canals. Officers Lu and Gang are taking care of it while Lt. Roh and I prepare for our time undercover.” He began making his way out of the room, stopping right before the door, “And Chief? You should probably head home and get some rest, you look like shit.”

He left the room and it felt like a shift had occurred, and it made the Chief concerned that she may have just altered one of the toughest relationships she’s ever constructed.

OO

When they all had decided to go out last night, Korra figured they would just have a few social beers and attempt to give some helpful advice to Bolin. Instead, what had happened were several drinks, followed by shots, then dancing and more shots. Korra bowed out on the third shot of fire whiskey, realizing where the night was heading and figured her friends needed at least one-third of the group to be coherent.

“That was nice of you,” said Asami, interrupting Korra’s retelling.

Korra shrugged, “Honestly, you didn’t even seem all that wasted, unlike Bolin, that is.” They had eventually hailed a cab for the big guy after they had tried their best at explaining to him that he should still seek out Opal, unless she says otherwise; they aren’t blood relatives and technically knew one another before they found out they were quasi-related. After Bolin began sobbing over how happy he was to have Asami and Korra as his friends and wingwomen, Korra figured it was time to wave down a cab for the big teddybear; he was just being a slobbery affectionate mess and wanted him to get home safely.

After seeing him off and giving the cab driver the address and a big tip, Asami begged to go back into the bar for more drinks, to which Korra agreed to “Only one!” she raised a finger and waved it about, signaling what ‘one’ means.

“And did you have just one?” Asami grinned and raised her dark eyebrows, knowing herself and her conniving ways all too well.

Korra shook her head and gave a heavy sigh, “Nope!” They only had a few more drinks but it was enough to get Korra feeling really loose and carefree while Asami was, well, she was beautiful and a little touchy feely, but Korra kept that to herself. 

At one point Korra had recognized her surfing competitor, the cheater Kuvira and her fiance, from across the bar. Korra quietly mentioned to Asami who she just noticed, “And next thing I know, you were across the bar, yelling and waving your arms in Kuvira’s face, pointing back at me. It was," 'attractive', Korra wanted to say, but settled with, “something else. But just an FYI, I prefer not starting a beef with the other surfers; it kind of messes up how I want to take on the competition.” 

Asami covered her face with her hands, trying to hide her embarrassment and groaned, “Oh spirits, I’m so sorry!”

“Don’t worry, I got you out of there before punches could be thrown.” she chuckled. Once outside in the fresh air and out of the cramped and stuffy bar, Korra suggested they walk off some of the buzz and Asami agreed. 

They talked a lot about work, about how Asami wishes things could get better between her and her dad; about how much she missed her mother and wanted with everything in her heart for her to be here to tell Asami she was doing the right thing; and how she wanted to knock some sense into her dad. They mainly talked about things Korra figured Asami wished they hadn’t, so she didn’t relay it to her, but it broke her heart hearing all of those things. Korra could hear all of the loneliness overwhelming the other woman’s thoughts and wished she could just fix it.

Asami had also gotten more and more clumsy and eventually took off her heels despite Korra’s protests about how that was the opposite of a good idea. While swinging around a lamppost humming a tune that may have played at the bar, it may have come from somewhere else, she collided into Korra. 

“You were a mess,” Korra chuckled, a hot mess, but a mess nonetheless. “When I helped you up you leaned in to,” kiss me? Korra thought, but no, probably definitely not that, “I think you meant to tell me something but, um…” She scrunched up her face.

“What?” groaned Asami with an unimpressed look upon her face.

Korra debated on telling her, but she felt like she needed to let this particular part to the night be known. She rubbed the back of her neck and looked down, “Well, you kind of...threw up...everywhere. And...on me.” 

Asami rolled her eyes and sunk down into the bed, covering herself with the blanket and let out fake emotional sobs, “What the hell is wrong with me?”

“Nothing, really. You did feel really bad about it, and offered to clean it up.”

“How?” came a muffled Asami.

“You, um…” Korra struggled again, trying her best not to make Asami feel worse than she already did.

Asami sat up now, raven hair wild and a serious look upon her tired face, “What-did-I-do?” She demanded.

“You leapt into the canal,” Korra blurted, then winced. They had been right by one of the canals and Asami took it upon herself to ‘clean up’, per say. “Not only was that dangerous and illegal, and...gross, a cab wouldn’t pick us up, so we ended up walking home.” Korra shrugged, thinking the turn of events was unfortunate but it could have been worse.

"That's it," Asami flung back the blanket and got out of bed, wobbled for a second, then continued. "I've treated you far worse just within the past twenty-four hours than I've ever treated anyone." She found and picked up her purse then slung it over her shoulder, "You don't need to try and get rid of me, I'll get out of your life. I'm so unbelievably sorry." 

She began walking towards the door but Korra cut her off, sliding around her, "Woah, hey, what are you getting at? So you had a bad day, it's okay."

Asami scoffed, more at herself than anything, "You cannot be serious. Korra, I vomited all over you and don't even remember doing it, which makes my apology an empty one. I was a complete embarrassment to you last night, jeopardizing your job and mine; I was reckless."

"Eh, not really," she shrugged, "I've done much worse. Sure, jumping in the canal probably wasn't the best idea for a multitude of reasons, but everything else was pretty normal drunken behavior."

"Not for me," Asami crossed her arms, beyond frustrated with herself but no longer attempting to leave, "How can anything I did be okay, though? You shouldn't even want me around by now."

"But I do," she hoped that didn't come out as serious as it sounded, "Look, Asami, I really enjoyed hanging out with you, and talking with you. Granted, I'm not offering we ever drink in order to have a great time," she laughed, "but I honestly had fun getting to know you, regardless of the shitshow you ended up having." 

Asami couldn't bring herself to look at Korra's face, not into those deep blue eyes that yanked on her heartstrings. She shook her head, "I'm going to leave before I end up accidentally killing you, but also because I might have to clean up my rampage from the night before." Asami noticed a look of confusion flash over Korra's face, "I'm one of the faces representing Future Industries, and I'm one of the very few trying to resonate something positive whenever you hear its name. I can't be seen frolicking around downtown, swimming in the polluted canals and puking publicly. Please, understand." Korra did understand, more than Asami knew. She had gone through her rebellious teenage years as the Chief of the Water Tribe’s daughter, and paid for it dearly. 

"I do," she said, solemnly. She stepped aside to let the tall woman have a path to the door, but before she left, Korra couldn't just leave it at that, "I just want you to understand that, even after everything from the past few days, I'm here if you need me. Well, here sometimes but mostly at the beach," she grinned, with sad eyes.

It was that grin that caused Asami to waver there for a second, contemplating what to do; what she should do, and what she really wanted to do right then and there. She smiled sadly, then looked into those eyes, "I'll keep it in mind, thank you. Goodbye, Korra," and then she was gone. 

Korra stood there for a while feeling guilty about everything and wishing she had handled the night before better. She laid back on the couch in a slump with her legs kicked up over the back. Before she could spiral into the depths of a full-blown guilt trip Bolin came through the front door, confusing Korra because she thought he was still asleep in his room. 

He was beaming and was wearing a massive smile upon his face, "Before I tell you all about my amazing and beautiful night-did I just see Asami drive off?" He wiggled his eyebrows up and down with a smirk. 

Korra sighed, "Yes, but it's not like that."

"Oh," he frowned, then grinned mischievously, "well, in case you were wondering: I approve." Korra rolled her eyes and moved onto her side, not in the mood. "Anyways," Bolin continued, "guess who just spent the entire night walking around with Opal until the sun came up?" He pointed his thumbs into his chest, not waiting for a reply, "This guy!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prepare your loins for the next chapter, ya'll. I'm promising some smoking hot Kyalin *eyebrow wiggle* and probably some more angst and some fluff *shrug*
> 
> Leave some love!


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Korra has a run-in with Kuvira while Lin and Kya finally have some alone time (with feels).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Mature content ahead, so if you feel uncomfortable reading such things you could just read the first bit, but I honestly have a lot of dialogue in between the sexy stuff, so if you're lost in the future I'm sorry :/

Bolin had spent about an hour telling Korra all about his wonderful evening walking about with Opal until the sun came up.  Turns out, Asami had drunk texted Opal on Bolin’s phone before he left in the taxi, telling Opal to meet him at his place to hang out.  When he arrived to find the girl he had been pondering over for days he was ecstatic, until he realized he was still very drunk.

“Did she notice?” Korra asked, chuckling at Bolin’s hilarious situation.

Bolin grinned and had the slightest blush on his big cheeks, “It didn’t take her too long to notice I was a flubbering mess more than usual.” He laughed at himself, then carried on telling her about how they walked and talked about everything, all the way through town to the beach, and ended up at the pier.  They sat at the end of the dock until the sun came up, “It was so beautiful, Korra, everything about the night and her was just so _beautiful_.”  

He sighed, and Korra placed a hand on his shoulder, “I’m happy for you, Bo.  Be good to her,” she pointed her finger at him playfully, then gave a wink.  

After an hour of hearing about Bolin’s amazing night Korra decided she should hit the waves in order to get her mind off of her crappy morning and stop beating herself up over it.  She stood on the shore, stretching before going out into the water and still couldn’t shake her thoughts.  Sure, as much as Asami wanted to blame herself for getting too drunk, Korra was more in control of the situation and could have prevented several things from happening; she didn’t think about the bigger consequences that night.  She hoped the shenanigans from the evening before hadn’t jeopardized Asami’s personal life or career, even though it did push her away from their friendship; that did hurt a little.  Korra had always had difficulty making friends back home, especially with girls; she just never fitted in with one group or another, until she came here.  Now, however, that potential friendship was snubbed out before it could really take off; but why did that upset her so much?  

Korra bent down, stretching towards her toes, when she heard the revving of an engine.  She quickly looked around, hopeful to see a certain Satocycle show up near Tenzin’s, but she was mistaken.  Someone on a dirt bike came speeding down the road, then took off across the beach headed right towards Korra.  She didn’t have time to move out of the way, but it didn’t matter as much; the biker came into a sharp turn to stop, then laid the bike down.  The rider stepped around the bike and pulled off their helmet, revealing Kuvira with a very stern look on her face.  Her long thick braid fell across her shoulders as she walked up to Korra, who stepped back, thinking she was about to get punched in the face.  

Kuvira scowled, “If you have a problem with me just say so, don’t send your girlfriend over to yell in my face!”

“Woah, hold on.” Korra waved her hands out before her, completely taken aback by the entire scenario.  “First off, she is _definitely_ not my girlfriend, okay?  Spirits,” she furrowed her brows, flustered over the constant insistence of her relationship with Asami.   _Besides_ , she thought, _she’s entirely out of my league_.  She placed a hand onto her hip while she rubbed the back of her neck, contemplating how to go about this conversation and decided ‘fuck it’.  “Second off, I do have a problem with you as a _fellow surfer_ ; you used an illegal maneuver during the competition and I think you should have been disqualified.  You could have gotten that other surfer injured and that’s really not okay with me.  As far as who you are as a person, well, I don’t have an opinion because I honestly don’t know you.”

Kuvira grumbled, it was apparent she came to have a throwdown with Korra, “I don’t have a lot of options when it comes to my tactics out on the waves.  I have sponsors to satisfy.”

Korra scoffed, she couldn’t help it, “All that ocean out there and you think you _have_ to cheat?  You have more options than that.”

Kuvira stepped forward and got in Korra’s face, “No I don’t, not when the opportunity arises.  Also, you said it yourself, you don’t know me.  Don’t try and convince me what I should and should not do.”  There was something behind those green eyes that screamed out a lot of trouble.  Kuvira poked a finger into Korra’s broad shoulder, “When you and I face off on those waves in a few weeks, don’t expect me to give you the go ahead.”

Korra hit back the strong hand, glaring up at the other woman, “I wouldn’t expect anything _less_ coming from you.”  

A hurt look passed over Kuvira’s face for a split second before turning into a look that could kill.  She walked back over to her dirt bike and hopped on.  Before starting it up she said, every word full to the brim with malice, “You should watch your back in the upcoming weeks, Korra.”  She gave a grin that made Korra’s blood run cold, then she put on her helmet and sped off, leaving Korra to wish this shitty day would just end.

OO

Lin took out her keys and fumbled with them until she found the one to her flat. While turning the key she noticed music playing from the other side of the door and immediately became suspicious, placing a hand on her gun holster. Slowly she opened the door, searching about the room for an intruder. She quietly closed the door behind her and began stepping forward, unfastening the holster, looking for things that may have gone amiss. She made her way towards the hallway holding onto the handle of her gun when a voice from behind caused her to jump.

"Bang.  You’re dead.”  Lin jolted around to see Kya laying on the couch with a mostly eaten apple in her hand, looking unimpressed.

“What the _hell_?”  Lin barked, buckling her holster back up, “Kya, what on earth are you doing in my home?”  She wasn’t angry, just freaked out and confused, and trying not to think about her daydream from earlier that day.

“I really wanted to check out your awesome stealth moves,” she said flatly, then stood up, went into the kitchen and tossed the apple into the wastebin.  Kya was barefoot and wearing a knee-length skirt with a revealing blouse tucked into it.  She began washing her hands in the sink and while drying them off with a towel, turned back around to Lin and said cooly, “Looks like somebody forgot they gave me a copy many years ago.  Honestly, Beifong, I figured of all people the Chief of the Republic City Police would change their locks on a _somewhat_ regular basis.”

Lin unbuttoned her jacket and threw it on the coat rack, kicked off her boots, then stepped into the kitchen behind Kya, placing a hand on her lower back.  “I’m sorry I forgot,” she planted a soft kiss on the back of Kya’s neck, “and that I almost killed you when I came in,” another peck, “and for being a jerk to you yesterday, and,” she sighed, “I’m sorry.”

Kya slowly turned around in Lin’s arms and placed her hands onto her biceps, giving them a squeeze.  With a purr, she said, “Don’t worry about it, you can make it up to me _all day long_.”  Her lips curled up devilishly as she leaned forward to kiss the other woman; Lin met her halfway and she felt like a teenager all over again as they melted into one another.

Lin’s hands gripped around Kya’s waist, shifting down to her hips as she pressed her pelvis into her’s, deepening the kiss.  The long haired woman began kissing down Lin’s neck, nibbling occasionally while her hands explored Lin’s attire.  She began with unhooking the gun holster and placing it on the counter, then came the unbuttoning of Lin’s white button-down that ended up thrown somewhere else, leaving Lin in her undershirt and slacks.  

As Kya began slipping her fingers between the flesh and waistband of Lin’s pants, the other woman sharply inhaled and grasped Kya’s hand, stopping her.  “I’m sorry, just-,” Lin’s face was pained, “I’m sorry.”  She let go of Kya’s hand as she stepped back against the other counter, looking flustered.  

Kya's brow furrowed in concern and she placed a hand on Lin's shoulder, the other caressed the scarred cheek, "Love, what's the matter?"

Lin leaned into the other woman's hand, closed her eyes and sighed. After a little while she opened her pale green eyes and said, "I have had a rough couple of days at work lately and I’ve been feeling undermined there, there’s some family drama, and I've been thinking too much about all of it."

Kya grinned and held onto Lin's hand, then guided her to the couch to sit down. "Talk to me, Love. Tell me what's up." Her expression was filled with care and understanding, letting Lin take the lead on the discussion.  Lin had never been one for talking about the going's on in her life outside of work, unless Kya was around as a listening ear.

Lin held onto Kya's worn slender hands as she worked internally on how to approach the conversation. Finally she began, "I believe I've messed up as the caretaker of the boys, and I've just realized it."  She harumphed, shaking her head, "I kept my family separate from them, never talked about them and for all they knew they didn’t even exist until yesterday. Mako and Bolin don't have any blood relatives, and I do.  Granted, I’ve never gotten along with my sister and she had been such a temperamental wild card who gallivanted around with gangs and the freaking circus.  In other words: not a great role model."  

Kya knew of the boys when Lin took them into her care years ago, but she hadn’t met them until the run in with Bolin the day before.  Kya never took it upon herself to chat about it with Su or her family because it wasn’t her place.  She did, however, give Lin a lot of crap for doing it though; joking that the Chief of police is the second to last person who should be fostering children, Lin Beifong being the absolute _last_.

Kya gave a thoughtful look, "Well, that's not entirely fair, you know. Your mother is a recluse out in some swamp somewhere, and she was extremely private as well, right? As for your sister, she has had a lot of growing up to do. Saying she isn’t a good role model isn’t exactly the truth, since your memories of her are all drawn from her super rebellious teenage years.  And your father?" She raised a brow, " _Well_ , he's been pretty non-existent your entire life, which is not your fault.  

“So sure, you could have told the boys about your sister and her family out in Zaofu, and then you would have had to drag them out there-or house them here-every summer break.  Sounds like your ideal form of 'fun'!" She nudged Lin, who grunted.

"I just feel like I've let them down. You should have _seen_ the way Mako looked at me this morning when I had mentioned Su was here." Lin's face fell, a look of anguish spread upon it as she squeezed Kya's hand. "That's when I knew I dropped the ball.  Those boys deserved someone besides myself, as much as I dislike my sister."  She was on the verge of tears, her voice shaky with bottled-up emotion.

Kya combed her long fingers into Lin's hair, "Love, you just need to apologize to them. They’re smart, understanding, and mature; they will find it within themselves to forgive you.  Properly introduce them, build that relationship; better late than never, right?”  Lin sighed and nodded.  Kya leaned forward and gently kissed the scars upon Lin’s cheek, causing a shiver to go through her body from the touch and its placement.  

Lin shuddered out her words with a soft smile, “I’m getting a little too old to be having a dirty little secret.”

Kya raised a brow and playfully responded with, “ _Oh_? You do realize that I’m older than _you_ , right?”

“Yes...I do,” Lin said, deep in thought, her gaze resting on nothing in particular.

Kya’s eyes narrowed, and her tone was accusatory, “What are you suggesting, Beifong?”

Lin grinned, and held Kya’s hands to her chest, “Hear me out.”

Kya groaned and took back her hands, standing up and beginning to pace, “Oh come on, Lin, we’ve been doing this off and on for how many years?”

“A million,” Lin said quietly, knowing the question had been rhetorical.

“Be quiet, I’m talking now,” Kya steamed with her hands on her hips as she walked back and forth, “Now, if you’re going to suggest what I _think_ you’re going to suggest, I’m going to ask what has gotten into your fucking head all of a sudden.  Are you _finally_ going through your midlife crisis?”

Lin scowled and hopped up, “And what do you _think_ I’m even going to suggest, huh?”

“If it’s anything more than our unsaid “Whenever I’m in town you fuck me until I can’t walk straight” agreement, then I don’t want any part of it!  You know me and how I feel about commitment.”

“And you know _me_ , dammit!”  Lin wasn’t about to hold back any punches and began laying on one of the thickest layers of sarcasm she’s ever dealt, “Do you really think I’m going to ask you to settle down, move in with me and get married?  You know what, maybe we should! We could get matching tattoos!  Or maybe a joint bank account!  How about we go and pick out where we should be buried together!”

For a second neither of them said anything to one another, and just stood there staring and scowling.  Then, Kya broke her serious look and began to laugh heavily, to which Lin rolled her eyes and grinned.  “Oh fuck this,” she grumbled as she moved forth to gather Kya into her arms and took her down the hallway to the bedroom.

Kya still had the giggles as she was laid down onto the soft bed, “You know, you almost had be there.”

Lin sighed and moved on top of the other woman, intertwining their legs as she placed Kya’s arms up above her head.  She said brusquely, “No more talking,” and began kissing into Kya’s neck, starting just under her ear and then moved down to her chest, releasing a soft moan when she arrived there.  Kya attempted to bring her arms down to wrap around Lin, but she managed to keep the arms pinned back with one arm while the other explored down below; pushing the skirt up.

Lin pressed her torso into the other’s, grinding her hips until Kya spread her legs enough to allow her to push into her.  Finally Lin brought her lips up from Kya’s neck, along her jawline to her lips, where Kya broke free from her bonds and pulled Lin’s face closer.  Kya’s tongue darted in playfully, pushing against Lin’s only for a little while, distracting her long enough to push her over to straddle her waist from above.  

Every single time they were together it was this tango of dominance between the two women, a fight to see who can be in control and push the other as far as they could get.  Lin was completely enamored by it, their encounters raking back time to the beginnings of their relationship, back to their first time.  It was exciting and new, and not much has changed ever since.

Lin couldn’t hold back a moan when Kya’s hand slipped under her bra and grasped the firm flesh beneath, fingers pinched the budding nipple and causing a shiver to go through her.  Lin’s hands were gripping onto Kya’s backside, taking in handfuls of her glorious ass and pulling it into her abdomen.  A hand unhooked Lin’s bra and it was gone, Kya’s blouse vanished along with her skirt, and Lin was happy to see there wasn’t any underwear to speak of on the other woman.  Lin sat up and began kissing Kya’s breasts hungrily, taking one into her mouth, sucking and licking her nipple.

Before Lin could begin trailing her fingers between Kya's powerful legs, she was pinned back to the bed again. "We need to get you out of this," she was referring to Lin's pants she still managed to be wearing. Kya started unbuckling Lin's belt, pulling it out through the belt loops and flung it behind herself; then she unbuttoned the top button and slowly pulled down the zipper.

She began tracing kissing along the divots of Lin's pelvis as the slacks and underwear slowly traveled off of Lin's muscular legs and onto the floor. Kya's mouth traveled from hip to hip, down to an inner thigh, teasing Lin and forcing sounds of arousal to escape her parted lips.

Just when Lin felt like she was going to crawl out of her skin Kya brought her mouth to the small mound of hair and planted a kiss, she could feel heat pulsating from there. She trailed down ever so slowly, then parted Lin's folds, exposing the pink wetness between them. Kya grazed a thumb over the clit, causing a jump through Lin, who reached down and grasped the back of her head.

The long haired woman brought her lips to Lin's center and licked deeply, running her tongue across the folds before inserting it into the opening. Lin moaned deeply, her back arching from the feeling running through her. Kya brought her head back and placed her fingers in her mouth before inserting them where her tongue had just been. She began sucking on Lin's clit as her fingers slid in and out, twisting and pulling against the inner walls.  Lin was completely beside herself, convulsing from each thrust. Kya tried her best to pin Lin down with her other arm, but it was proving difficult.

And there it was; the first wave of pleasure spread like a wildfire up her abdomen, a deep throb of ecstasy overwhelming her and taking her breath away. She held onto Kya's head, fingers tangled into her hair, keeping it there as she arched her back up, no longer in control of her body's response.

After a while her muscles lost their tension and she collapsed back into the bed, breathing heavily and in a daze. Kya made her way back up beside Lin, pinning herself up with an elbow as she looked over her job well done. Lin held onto the other woman’s hand, rubbing a thumb over it for a while before saying, "I love you, Kya."  She looked over to see Kya's sultry gaze not waver, but a smile crept up her slender face. Lin's brow knit together, "I don’t know why I've never told you that before."

It was true, Kya had said it a million times in bed and nonchalantly, but that was just how Kya was. Her smile was bright as she leaned forward and kissed Lin softly, "Honey, you've never had to _say_ it, I’ve always felt it."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How bout that, huh?
> 
> Stay tuned for some interesting stuff I have hiding up my sleeve!
> 
> Leave some lovin'!


	8. Chapter 8

Korra had been getting cut off on the waves by other surfers for days, and it was beginning to drive her insane.  Every time she paddled up to a wave there was always someone coming to take it away from her.  It was apparent Kuvira had hired some thugs to keep her from getting any proper training in, but she was determined and wasn’t going to give up without a fight.

Korra had been trying to catch a ride all day and was having no luck.  The sun was covered by dark clouds and the chilly day had only gotten cooler, causing her to shiver, but it hadn’t driven off the other surfers.  She didn’t care though, she _had_ to ride a wave out; Bolin and Tenzin had been on her about it for days.

A gust of wind blew over her, stinging her eyes with the salty spray, but there it was: she watched the swell rise before it turned into the best ride of the day and she laid down on her board and began to paddle.  The water rose and took her with it, she could feel the current bringing her in quickly.  Someone had noticed the wave, or they most likely saw her, and was paddling about five yards to her left.  Korra tried not to pay any mind to it and began turning herself about, then paddled backwards in order to be taken up in the current.   _Here we go_ , she thought.  She kicked up smoothly, her body in its natural rhythm as she guided the board into the curl.

Finally, she was riding a beautiful, perfect wave.  Her hand reached out into the wall of water beside her and she drug herself back slightly, wanting to hang out in the tube.  Suddenly, the curl cascaded over her, loud and powerful.  She was in her element; this was why she was here.

Sadly, it all came to an end when the other surfer from before dropped in, blocking her exit from the tube.  Everything happened at once, however, and the wave swallowed them up.  Korra felt like she had been taken in through a forceful vacuum made up of hundreds of gallons of water.  Her body was tossed, pulled, spun, and kept under far too long; once she was released from her underwater battle she gasped deeply for fresh air.  She had swallowed a lot of water during her attempts to catch a breath and was coughing a lot.  

Korra realized her ankle chord had snapped during the throws and began looking around for the board.  Instead, she noticed the surfer who had cut her off, swimming back over to his group of friends, and fury took over her.  She began wading towards him, ready to claw his eyes out, when Bolin grabbed her by the arm and yanked her towards the shore.

“What are you doing?” she yelled at him, trying to pull free.

“Korra, come on,” he struggled to keep her moving away from the other guy, who now was laughing his ass off at her with his buddies.  She wanted to dropkick every last one of them.  “Korra!” Bolin yelled, finally letting go of her once they were back on land.

She noticed he was upset but it did little to calm her down.  “What is your problem?  He could have killed me, I could have drowned!”

“Yes, I know!” he exclaimed, sitting her down on the sand and he took out a flashlight from his lifeguard kit, “That’s why I’m shining this light in your eyes to check for a concussion.”

Korra rolled her eyes and gave an angry growl, “Bolin, please! Are you not going to do anything about them?”

The light went from one eye to the other, and back, “Of course I am, right after you tell me your name, where you were born, where we are and-” he was cut off by Ikki and Meelo showing up beside them.

They each carried one-half of what used to be a surfboard and Korra’s heart fell; the kids handed them to her with sad expressions.  Korra looked at the two halves of the first board she had ever made herself, now beyond repair.  She bolted up, threw down the pieces, and took off towards the group of surfers that had been plaguing her week, Bolin right behind yelling her name.  She couldn’t hear him over her own enraged screaming of every curse word Kya had ever taught her.

 

OO

 

It had been nearly a week since the hellish night she had, and Asami has been walking on eggshells at work around her father, waiting for something to come up and take her down.  She doesn’t know what got into her, or why she had been so juvenile; most of the time she could blame Bolin, who can be such an enabler, but after he had left she was still acting wreckless.

_I could have hurt myself, or Korra_ , she thought, _I jeopardized my career and could have destroyed every positive aspect I laid out for myself and Future Industries._

She was held up in her garage, where she spent most of her time overthinking while tinkering on things.  She currently unscrewed the back to one of the top selling televisions in the city and was attempting to see what made it work, why it was sought after, and how she could improve it.  All the while she was deep in thought over the past week, trying to figure out what had gotten into her and what her true intentions were; perhaps she had been trying to let out stress from work.  

She yanked out a mess of wires and began to untangle them when there was a knock; she turned around to see her father at the door.  She looked away, she hadn’t expected him to come around ever since their last non-work related conversation.   _Here it comes_ , she thought, her father had finally figured out what she had done the other night and was going to reprimand her or worse.  

“Hello, Asami,” he sounded distracted, and she saw he was looking over the disemboweled television on the ground, parts everywhere.  She continued toying with the pieces in her hands and inspecting them.

“Hello,” she responded, preoccupied. She did, however, promise herself not to lose her temper this time.  “Can I help you with something?”

“Hmm?” He looked up over his glasses at her, then looked away quickly, “Oh, no, nothing in particular.”  He walked over to her workbench to look over her sketches of new ideas for improvements on current projects, some inventions she’d been kicking around, and... _shit_ , she thought.  

Asami quickly bolted over and closed up the sketchbooks, a flush rose on her cheeks.  She had forgotten there were a few drawings she had procured from memory of Korra surfing the first day they had met.  It was more so a study of the human anatomy and its physical movements, she had been telling herself.  She hoped her father hadn’t noticed the several drawings of that young girl, but as she stuffed away the papers and books into a drawer she saw that he had.

“So, who was that?”  he tried to sound disinterested but she could see right through him; there was the slightest hint of a grin behind that big mustache.

“Hmm?” Asami decided to play dumb, and went back to tinkering on the television.  He hovered behind her and gave a heavy sigh, which made her roll her eyes.  She hated talking to him about stuff like this. The conversations always ended the same; she’d share what may be going on and her father wouldn’t have any form of advice to provide.  She would always be left feeling like she overshared and like she she was always wrong; it was embarrassing and disheartening. Plus, she didn't feel like he was allowed in on her personal life.

“Asami,” her father attempted to chime, but it fell flat and sounded more like an order for her to speak.

She groaned and decided to be only somewhat honest, “She’s just a girl who I saw surfing a couple weeks ago.  I thought she was really talented and I felt like sketching the art of surfing out.  It’s a pretty interesting sport, have you ever seen it?”  She looked back over her shoulder and saw a look of disgust cross over his face.

“It’s not really an ‘art’ or even a 'sport' per say, but I guess I understand the attraction.”  Annoyance flushed through her and she bit her tongue, but he looked thoughtful for a second, “Actually, I believe we may even sponsor one of the surfers within the competition here.  ‘Kuvira’, I believe is her name?”

Asami stood up, gripping her pliers, trying her best to keep her cool, “Kuvira? Really?  Why is this the first I’m hearing of it?”

Hiroshi shrugged, “Probably because it’s no matter compared to the other things we do at Future Industries.  I think it was good PR-or so my publicist told me it was. You know Future Industries likes to have their hands in anything that goes on in this city.”  He shrugged and Asami narrowed her eyes at him, but he ignored it.  “Besides, why does our sponsorship of her bother you?”

Asami bit her tongue, trying to separate her personal life from the conversation as much as she could.  She answered quickly, “It doesn’t, I just know that Kuvira isn’t the most _mindful_ surfer within the competition.”

“Oh?”  Hiroshi’s brows rose, and there was a knowing look behind his eyes, “Is the girl in your sketchbook any better?”

_Yes_ , she thought, _a hundred times yes_ ; but she kept that to herself and continued in a forced calm voice, “She at least follows the rules, that’s all.”  After a long pause she looked up to her father, “Why are you here, again?”  Her patience and temper were running short.

He let out a sigh and took some time before responding, not meeting her eyes, “I came here in person to let you know that Future Industries is moving forward with the beach front project, and,” he raised a hand towards Asami, cutting off the hundreds of rebuttals she tried to get out, “I came here to tell you there aren’t any more road blocks you and your team can put up to waylay the project.  President Raiko has given Future Industries the go ahead in taking over the beach and its other properties.  Asami, this is for the best, I hope you will understand that someday.”  There was no sincerity in his eyes, there was nothing, this was a business meeting behind closed doors.

"Also, you may want to break ties with your... _surfer friend_ ; I frankly don't want you interacting with her type, and my guess is that she won't want much to do with you after the plan goes underway. Goodnight, " He made his way towards the door, Asami was completely speechless, she had so many things she needed and wanted to say but couldn’t.  

She watched as her father left the garage, not even attempting to comfort his own daughter.  Everything she and her team had worked towards in keeping this project from ever even happening was snubbed out in a behind-the-back deal with Raiko.  She was overflowing with anger and she threw the parts that had been grasped in her hands across the garage; a clash occurred but she didn’t care what she may have broke.  She leaned on her workbench, trying to control her outburst and keep it at bay; no need to destroy the garage.

Asami felt betrayed by her own father, her company, and her city’s President, but she needed to make this right.  She didn’t have time to fall apart, she needed to fix this.  She needed something big to prevent all of this from going through and actually happening, and she needed reinforcements.  She picked up her cellphone and opened up her contacts, scrolled down until she found who she needed.

I went to voicemail, “Hey, Varrick?  I know you’re on your honeymoon-and I'm sorry, but I need you to get your ass back here now.  I can't really get into it at the moment, but everything is falling apart and I need your help.”

She hung up and began to pace, her thoughts in overdrive, brainstorming overload. She needed her team, every one of them, to think of all the possibilities with how this could not legally go through, how Future Industries couldn’t just displace the residents of the city. A thought popped into her head, remembering a particular family who lives and works at the beach front. Then she thought of Korra and how devastated she would be for countless reasons. Asami grabbed her keys and decided there and then that her father's wishes weren't worth a single yuan, she needed to take care of her friends and this city.

 

OO

 

Korra didn’t get very far in her attempt to murder everyone on the beach that afternoon; Bolin had carried her off back to Tenzin’s before she strangled that jerk until he was unconscious.  When they returned to the shop she had been punished by Tenzin to practice her meditation for the rest of the day.  She had been sitting out in the garden for nearly three hours ‘meditating’, and hadn’t gotten any closer to separating herself from her anger or finding peace within herself.  In fact, the longer she sat there the angrier she got.

“Korra, straighten up,” she heard Tenzin say from the porch he had just walked out on, “And for spirits’ sake, work on your breathing; they’re supposed to be gradual breaths, you aren’t running a marathon!”  

Her fists clenched together and her temper rose, but she held her tongue when Master Tenzin told her how to improve herself.  She inhaled deeply and slowly, then let it out.  Pema came outside and said that dinner was ready, to which Korra jumped up readying herself to run inside, but Tenzin put up a hand, “No, not until you find compassion and forgiveness within yourself, then you can join us.”

Korra’s brow bunched up into a deep scowl, “But that could be for days! How does ‘not eating’ help me with that?”

“Actually, fasting helped a lot of monks reach enlightenment, great idea, Korra!” Tenzin gave a grin and followed his wife inside.

Korra groaned and kicked up a tuft of grass.  After a minute of anger-induced pacing around the garden she sat back down and attempted to empty her infuriated thoughts in order to replace them with peaceful ones.  She crossed her legs and laid her arms upon her knees, palms up, and focused on her breathing.  She could hear the commotion coming from the interior of the house, Bolin had joined them for supper and the kids were ecstatic but she tuned it out; she listened to the waves far out across the beach and they calmed her; a light breeze caressed the back of her neck and the hairs rose.  

A hand shook Korra’s shoulder and she nearly jumped out of her skin.  She fluttered open her eyes and they widened in surprise, Asami Sato was hunched over Korra with a hand on her shoulder.  Korra stood up suddenly, catching Asami off guard, but she looked around and noticed the Satocycle was in the lot; she had never heard it come up.

“Hey, Korra, are you alright?”  Asami looked down at the shorter woman, cocking an eyebrow.  Korra looked back at her and noticed she was in a pair of tight black pants that tucked into her boots, and a deep red leather jacket her dark ponytail flowed down the back of.  She had deep red lipstick on. “Korra?”  

Korra shook her attention back from focusing on Asami’s red lips and instead met with her green eyes.  Korra’s voice was raspy and heavy, “Uh, yeah.”  They hadn’t seen one another since Asami left the apartment in an emotional tornado nearly a week ago and that had left the slightest discomfort in the air between them now.  Korra rubbed the back of her neck and Asami grinned, “So, what are you doing here?”  She was hopeful Asami was coming back around and had gotten over her embarrassment. 

“Well, things at work have taken a turn for the worst. I'm trying to round up my work team, and I figured I’d find Bolin here.  Am I right?”  Asami’s dark brows rose when she smiled.

“Yeah, he’s just inside, is everything okay?” Before Asami could even begin to talk about what was going on she was cut short by the revving of engines coming from around the corner and stopping out front of the house.  Korra’s face showed curiosity as she watched Tenzin inside the house stand up from the table and start off for the front door.  Korra stepped forward and put a hand on Asami’s arm, her expression turning to worry, “Can you go inside and get Bolin, I think we'll need his help out front. I have a bad feeling about this.”

"Yeah, sure," replied Asami as Korra took off around the house. Slowly Korra came up to the side of the structure and could hear a heated discussion between two unfamiliar voices and Tenzin.  When she crept to the corner she noticed the strangers were dressed in dirt bike gear, with their helmets still on and visors down; one was really tall and bulky while the other was very short and wispy.  Tenzin stood with his arms crossed and a deep scowl upon his face; his beard causing him to look sinister.

“You have no right approaching me here on my own property at this time of night.  My family is just inside and-”

“Shut up, old man.  We don’t care,” the bigger thug had reached out and grasped onto Tenzin’s collar, “We have our orders and we’re going to follow through on them.”

Korra cleared her throat and walked up to them, “Were your orders to be a couple of ominous jerks sent to beat up an old man on private property? Because, well, I'm sorry that's just not going to work out too well for you.”  The side of her mouth curved up as she gave her sarcastic spiel.  Neither of the strangers responded or moved, so Korra chimed again as she stepped closer, now shoulder to shoulder with Tenzin, “This is the part where you let go of him.”

“Korra, please,” Tenzin seemed to be holding his breath; the walking definition of ‘peaceful’ was worried he would be punched in the face at any moment, “This doesn’t concern you.”

She glanced over at Master Tenzin, he seemed scared and it made her uneasy.  She was worried these were more recruits of Kuvira’s coming to wreak more havoc but now on her home turf; Korra couldn’t let that go.  "I'm sorry, Tenzin, but this does concern me." Her attitude turned into a more serious one as she looked at the shiny black helmet that still held onto her instructor.  Her voice was low and calm, “For the last time: let him go.”

The helmeted figures began to chuckle and went into full on laughter, which caused her temper to snap.  Internally, she thanked mom and dad for putting her through a few martial arts classes before sending her off to the big city; they were going to come in handy right about now.  She stretched her arm out and flung it up, knocking off the grip from Tenzin’s shirt, and then pivoted and kicked the big guy back; he stumbled and clutched his stomach, coughing.  

She was now in a defensive stance when she gave her official last warning, “Like we’ve said before, this is private property.  Whether you leave now or not, I will call the cops to collect you.”

The smaller helmeted figure that had been standing back for the majority of the scenario finally moved forward, cracking his knuckles.  “Sounds like fun,” they said, then began swinging back.  Before collision, Bolin came rushing out of the house yelling bloody murder as he tackled one of the thugs to the ground.  

Everyone stared down at the brawl that just began and Tenzin took the opportunity to back off towards the house.  Korra looked back at the other unwelcome guest, but he caught her by surprise with a strike across the cheek. She quickly deflected another hit, knocking his arm to the side, then punched with an open palm into his chest. He coughed out, but hit her oncoming kick to the stomach out of the way. They sparred back and forth until Korra decided it was time to take a cue from Bolin and tackle the guy; she wrapped her arms around his middle and pushed with all of her strength and brought him down.

They tustled back and forth for a little while, both getting in punches and kicks here and there. When Korra was kneed in the stomach and doubled over in pain, the guy she had been fighting rolled away and stood up. He towered above her and just when he raised a big boot to kick her in the face he began convulsing uncontrollably, then fell over. When he hit the ground like a massive fallen tree, Asami Sato stood in his place holding a taser; her eyes were wild as she looked from the slumped figure on the ground over to Korra, who sat there wide-eyed.  Before Asami could ask if she was okay she noticed Bolin was still wrestling.  She leapt over the unconscious body and lunged towards the quarreling pair then pressed the taser into the guy sitting on top of Bolin, catching him right under the armpit.  

After some sputtering and shakes he fell over and Bolin pushed him off and onto the other guy.  “Dang, Asami, nice job!” Bolin jumped up and gave her free hand a high five.

"The situation was looking a little rocky, so I thought I should help out a little," she shrugged and switched the taser off as she stuffed it into a pocket.  She turned around to Korra and gave her a helping hand with getting up.  A soft smile reached her lips as she looked into Korra’s worried blue eyes, “Are you okay?”

Korra winced as she stood up, her side and face still aching, but tending to her injuries could wait.  “I’m fine,” she said, her voice heavy like her thoughts.  She could hear sirens not far off and was relieved for their quick arrival.  “I would like to know who these two assholes are, however.”

She bent down and yanked off the helmet of each of the thugs, but didn't recognize them.  Korra had expected to see familiar faces that had haunted her on the waves all week, so this didn’t connect.  They both, however, had the same tattoo etched on the side of their necks: three parallel lines.  Korra’s face twisted into more confusion, she had never seen this type of marking before.

Asami had knelt down beside her and her eyes narrowed at the two men who lay before them, “Looks like the Triple Threats have paid Tenzin a visit,” she said cooly.  

Korra stood up, feeling lightheaded from all the activity.  A cop car rolled up out front of the house and two officers stepped out.  After the arrest and a few questions, Tenzin included, the police left with the two thugs while Korra and the others went back inside.  The kids bombarded them with a million questions and, while Tenzin tried to keep them calm and comfort Pema.  Bolin took this time to distract the kids with a little game to get them out of their parents' hair.

While Bolin was pretending to wrestle Meelo, Asami noticed Korra walking out the back door.  She watched as she left without a word and was worried about her, she had seemed shaken up.  Asami looked around and saw that nobody else had noticed and decided to go after her.  When she stepped out onto the back patio there was a cool breeze and it was quiet and dark, save for the light on in the little shed set in the back of the yard.  She walked across the grass, through the garden, until she reached the vine-covered shed.

She could hear the muffled sounds of things being thrown and was hesitant with knocking on the door, but decided to do it anyway.  After a few seconds the door creaked open and Korra looked up at Asami, who had noticed the shorter girl had been crying.  She had to stop herself from reaching up and wiping the tears away and instead was invited into the shed.  

The small building was dimly lit, cramped, and filled with tools, but it was still inviting and warm; it reminded her a lot of her garage, her refuge. Then she saw the broken surfboard on the ground and turned back to Korra who still stood by the door.  “Korra,” Asami spoke softly, keeping her eyes on the other woman as she pointed towards the busted board, “did you do this?”  She tried not to sound accusatory, she was worried about how this typically comical girl was as upset as she seemed at the moment.

Korra glanced at the surfboard and walked over to her workbench, “No, that broke on me earlier today.”  She let out a heavy sigh and her broad shoulders slumped down.  “I believe Kuvira has been sending people to make my life difficult and...well, they surely are succeeding, aren’t they?”  She gave a chuckle and turned back around, then leaned against the bench.  The light now shown from above and exposed Korra’s exhaustion, pain and worry written all over her face, including the cut on her cheek she received from one of the bad guys.

“Korra, I’m so sorry,” Asami stepped forward, and felt a  wave of guilt.  “If I hadn’t been such a fool last week she wouldn’t be taking it out on you.”

“Actually, I might have egged her on a little when she confronted me about it,” she shrugged and gave a slight grin, finally looking up to Asami’s green eyes.  She let out a shaky sigh, “I really don’t understand what happened tonight, though.  Why were these Triple Threat guys trying to take out Tenzin?”

Asami moved over to Korra and leaned up to the bench beside her, “I’m not exactly sure, but I have some ideas. I'd like to talk about some of them with you, but...” Asami couldn’t help herself any longer and reached up to cup the girl’s injured cheek, careful not to hurt her further.  “Do you have a wet washcloth?”

Korra knit her brows together, then answered with a heavy voice, “What? Why?”  

Asami smiled at the girl before her, “Because you have dried blood along your cheek and I want to clean it up for you.”

Korra cocked a brow as she turned to grab a small towel and wetted it in the sink.  She returned to Asami and handed it off to her, “Why are you here, Miss Sato? I mean, besides what's beginning to look like an obsession with taking care of me...” Korra gave her a sly grin that Asami chuckled at.

Asami put a finger under Korra’s chin and began dabbing at the dry blood, “I told you, work stuff with Bo. But,” she hesitated, weighing if she should say what she was thinking, "I really wanted to see you. There are things happening that I'm trying to prevent, things that could greatly affect Tenzin's family, you, and the city."  Asami finished cleaning up Korra’s cut and started bringing back her hand when Korra reached up and grasped it, causing Asami to look into those azure eyes.

"This doesn't sound good," Korra's face fell when Asami shook her head. Korra wasn't stupid, she knew what Future Industries has been trying to do to the beachfront for months now. It all made sense though with the way Tenzin and others would stop talking abruptly when she would enter the room, apparently discussing what to do if this plan came into fruition. The Triple Threats paying a visit wasn't a friendly reminder, this was only the beginning. Korra dropped Asami's hand and struggled to keep her emotions back, but her eyes stung. She inhaled sharply and looked away from the woman above her, "What-I, uh, what can we do? I mean, they can't take our homes from us, right?" 

Asami's heart ached, "I'm not going to let them, Korra." Korra choked back a sob and Asami couldn't help herself from embracing the shorter woman. They stood there for a moment with their arms wrapped around one another, Asami lightly rubbed Korra's back to comfort her. "Look at me," Asami said lightly, Korra pulled back and glanced up with wet eyes. "I promise I'm going to do everything in my power to not let this happen. I care more about the people in this city more than my father ever will, and," she wiped a tear away with her thumb and gave a smile, "I care about you."

The door to the shack swung open and in walked Ikki with a tray in hand, the two women quickly untangling themselves from one another. “Korra! Dad said you can eat now, he said it was okay and you were no longer being punished since you kicked so much butt tonight!”  The little affectionate child had the biggest smile on her face and apparently was still riding high off the energy from the ‘big fight’, it was difficult to turn her away.  “Oh, and he wants to talk to you!”

Korra wiped her face with the back of her hand smiled as she looked over at Asami, who grinned.  “Thank you, Ikki. Let him know I’ll be available once I’m done eating, okay?”

“Okay!” Ikki smiled and continued to stare at Asami for a while, swaying back and forth on her toes, then said, “You’re really pretty.”

“Ikki! Go!”  Korra shooed the little girl off and she ran back out into the garden with a squeal.  Korra chuckled and turned back to Asami, who wore a bashful look. "Where were we?" she placed her hands on her hips and shuffled closer to the taller woman. 

Asami grinned, “What are you going to be up to in a couple of days?”

Korra shrugged, "Oh, you know the answer to that.” They chuckled.

“Well, I really need to go talk to Bolin, and I’m probably going to be stuck in business meetings for a day or two, but, how about I come by and we can hang out?”

“Sounds perfect.”  Korra smiled broadly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you! Leave some love and comments!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading She Hit Me Like a Tidal Wave!
> 
> Leave some feedback, it would be most appreciated!


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